The rulers of the state are the only persons who ought to have the privilege of lying, either at home or abroad; they may be allowed to lie for the good of the state.

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

We have got to change our ethics and our financial system and our whole way of understanding the world. It has to be a world in which people live rather than die; a sustainable world. It could be great.

I pay attention to politics and technology.

I don’t think a Jewish or Christian or Islamic state is a proper concept. I would object to the United States as a Christian state.

In politics nothing is contemptible.

If you’re looking for the safe choice, you shouldn’t be supporting a black guy named Barack Obama to be the next leader of the free world.

Israelis would mostly breathe a sigh of relief if Palestinians were to disappear.

The Republican Party has become overwhelmingly so extreme that it’s hardly a traditional political party anymore.

George Bush made a mistake when he referred to the Saddam Hussein regime as ‚evil.‘ Every liberal and leftist knows how to titter at such black-and-white moral absolutism.

Before I became a chief minister, I never thought that one day I’d be the chief minister.

There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do.

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Israel is a pretty crazy state.

Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.

Polygamy: An endeavour to get more out of life than there is in it.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.

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.

If people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

Where there is no opposition to evil, it multiplies.

The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man’s new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit.

Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.

I had three points I wanted to make: That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who’s not doing a good job. But I didn’t make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.

America is just downright mean.

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

Politics is not bean bags. It’s serious, tough stuff.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

I know black people love the idea that we finally have a beautiful, good-looking black president. But if he is doing awful things to us, we should wake up.

Every President wants to do right.

We can’t have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don’t mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.

Running for office is similar to being a trial lawyer in a very long trial. It requires adrenaline and stamina; it requires being in shape mentally and emotionally. It’s a marathon.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

What is moral is what you feel good after, and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.

I think governments can’t do much.

Well, I have great respect for Senator Hirono.

There is no distinctly American criminal class – except Congress.

Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.

To live outside the law, you must be honest.

Winning the election is a good-news, bad-news kind of thing. Okay, now you’re the mayor. The bad news is, now you’re the mayor.

Laughter is one of the very privileges of reason, being confined to the human species.

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.

None of us is designed for the role we must assume in a revolutionary society, although Cubans had the privilege of Jose Marti’s example.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

I don’t even know what the issues are. I haven’t paid attention to politics in a long time. It’s actually not something that I really even enjoy. It’s way off my radar.

That fatal drollery called a representative government.

Man is not free unless government is limited.

Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.

A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.

Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.

It’s not just a matter of whether you support Obama or Romney. It’s who they have coming with them. I always keep my powder dry, as they say in the military.

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

The first rule of business is: Do other men for they would do you.

I think big business is a terrible thing for the spirit of the country, as our spirit is the best thing about us.

I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.

Lawless are they that make their wills their law.