The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence.

I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand Points of Light. This is my mission, and I will complete it.

America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.

I have never sat down and studied the Bible, never consciously echoed its language, and am, in reality, as ignorant of it as most brought-up Christians. All of the Bible that I use in my work is remembered from childhood and is the common property of all who were brought up in English-speaking communities.

Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.

The example that America knows how to govern itself is one of the compelling aspects of our national security.

What’s right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity – intellect and resources – to do some thing about them.

Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.

We will invest in our people, quality education, job opportunity, family, neighborhood, and yes, a thing we call America.

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.

I could do nothing but Brooklyn shows for the rest of my career, and I could die ignorant.

My heart aches for America and its deceived people.

I’ve said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!

I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. Seeing, therefore, that I did not desire more children, I began to strive after self-control. There was endless difficulty in the task.

I think there is a sense of being forced at this time to look at America’s really large shadow and that’s not all that bad.

The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

The tragedy of America is that it entered all the wars with a consensus in favor of them, but within a defined period, the legitimacy of the war became a major domestic issue, with some people arguing that withdrawal was the only legitimate objective.

After a century of trying, we declared that healthcare in America is not a privilege for a few, it is a right for everybody. After decades of talk, we finally began to wean ourselves off foreign oil. We doubled our production of clean energy. We brought more of our troops home to their families, and we delivered justice to Osama bin Laden.

Most people wouldn’t know music if it came up and bit them on the ass.

People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn’t they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines… There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters.

To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.

I think that man has a fundamental obligation to extract from himself and from the earth all that it can give; and this obligation is all the more imperative that we are absolutely ignorant of what limits – they may still be very distant – God has imposed on our natural understanding and power.

We welcome the scrutiny of the world – because what you see in America is a country that has steadily worked to address our problems and make our union more perfect.

Superstition is the poetry of life.

Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning, accompanied with ill bringing-up, are far more fatal.

Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

In America there’s no way I can make the kind of movie I like to make.

America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people.

Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.

The spirit of America has nurtured responsibility and community unlike any other country.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no. That’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be president?

Here in England, everyone’s a pop star, innit, whereas in America they believe in the term artist.

The action we take and the decisions we make in this decade will have consequences far into this century. If America shows weakness and uncertainty, the world will drift toward tragedy. That will not happen on my watch.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.

When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.

To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.

Our friends at the Republican convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn’t have much to say about how they’d make it right. They want your vote, but they don’t want you to know their plan.

In England, an inventor is regarded almost as a crazy man, and in too many instances, invention ends in disappointment and poverty. In America, an inventor is honoured, help is forthcoming, and the exercise of ingenuity, the application of science to the work of man, is there the shortest road to wealth.

Nobody’s ever called me Sir Richard. Occasionally in America, I hear people saying Sir Richard and think there’s some Shakespearean play taking place. But nowhere else anyway.

Science is the father of knowledge, but opinion breeds ignorance.

All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that’s an alibi for my ignorance.

I don’t think anybody in America ought to be scared.

In order to rally people, governments need enemies… if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.

Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.

It’s overwhelmingly in the self-interest of the United States of America to have a secure, democratic friend, a strategic partner like Israel.

A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

Millions of students now, in all the schools of America, are reading science fiction and especially, thank God, ‚The Martian Chronicles.‘

In America, there might be better gastronomic destinations than New Orleans, but there is no place more uniquely wonderful.

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year and spends very little on office supplies.

In Europe first and now in America, elected men have taken it upon themselves to indebt their people to create an atmosphere of dependency. And why? For their own selfish need to increase their own personal power.

The wild Indian power of escaping observation, even where there is little or no cover to hide in, was probably slowly acquired in hard hunting and fighting lessons while trying to approach game, take enemies by surprise, or get safely away when compelled to retreat.

I busted a mirror and got seven years bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five.

This is not Johnson’s war. This is America’s war. If I drop dead tomorrow, this war will still be with you.

In Britain, like most of the developed world, stem-cell research is regarded as a great opportunity. America will be left behind if it doesn’t change policy.

America’s promises do not come with a price tag. We meet our commitments. We bear our burdens. That’s one of the reasons why almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago when I took office.