The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.

As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all.

No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.

That government is best which governs least.

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.

Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.

Washington isn’t a city, it’s an abstraction.

About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.

President Assad, I worked with. I know him reasonably well, met with him a few times, and he’s a liar.

But do I think that our actions in anyway violate the War Powers Resolution, the answer is no.

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.

We are all the President’s men.

So far as the government is concerned, there is only one holy book, which is the constitution of India. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion.

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.

What do you think a stimulus is? It’s spending – that’s the whole point! Seriously.

If misery loves company, misery has company enough.

The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.

To correct a natural indifference I was placed half-way between misery and the sun. Misery kept me from believing that all was well under the sun, and the sun taught me that history wasn’t everything.

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

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

When I came to Delhi and noticed an insider view, I felt what it was, and I was surprised to see it. It seemed as if dozens of separate governments are running at the same time in one main government. It appeared that everyone has its own fiefdom.

I think one of the great things about the United States has been our ability to maintain a distinction between our military and domestic law enforcement.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

I’m going to be a vice president very much like George Bush was. He proved to be a very effective vice president, perhaps the most effective we’ve had in a couple of hundred years.

A Christian who does not pray for those who govern is not a good Christian.

Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

No fundamental social change occurs merely because government acts. It’s because civil society, the conscience of a country, begins to rise up and demand – demand – demand change.

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

Governments regard their own citizens as their main enemy, and they have to be – protect themselves. That’s why you have state secret laws. Citizens are not supposed to know what their government is doing to them.

It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

Well, no one gives aid to Zimbabwe through the Mugabe government.

Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.

I loved being Secretary of State, that’s probably evident to everyone who watched me.

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

The military can buy our diplomats some time.

We are a forward-looking people, and we must have a forward-looking government.

It’s a good thing we don’t get all the government we pay for.

Democracy is the road to socialism.

On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

I feel good because I believe I have made progress in rebuilding the people’s trust in their government.

Every time there has been an effort by the Haitian people to overcome the misery and poverty that comes from 200 years of bitter attacks, really bitter, the U.S. steps in and blocks it.

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.

It wasn’t until we got our first office in Palo Alto where things became more like a company. We never went into this wanting to build a company.

Some people will have to be afraid. Those who plunder the nation, deliver injustice, will have to feel scared of me. And I am not afraid of admitting this. Government cannot be so lenient that it forgives them.

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

Well, I thought the deal was, when you went to work for the government you weren’t supposed to make money!

Government’s first duty and highest obligation is public safety.

Oh! Most miserable wretch that I am! Why have I not learnt how to swim?

When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the old source is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer where they had one before.