The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘

I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.

Any lady who is first lady likes being first lady. I don’t care what they say, they like it.

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail.

I don’t see any possibility of Britain and the U.S. allowing a sovereign independent Iraq; that’s almost inconceivable.

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

I think where political issues invade moral situations, spiritual leaders have to speak out.

One of the roles of the Presidency is to lead a political party. Having a President in office is usually a huge advantage to a party because it gives the party a mouthpiece and an advocate at the highest level.

The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.

Lincoln said you cannot be President without spending some item on your knees. I have repeated that and a bunch of Atheists got all over me. Wait a minute. Does that mean that you cannot be President if you are an Atheist? I say yea that does mean that.

How can we help President Obama?

I do not believe that government should be in the business of telling women what they should do with their bodies.

Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.

I am not a crook.

England is a nation of shopkeepers.

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

Politics, as a practise, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

The Trump phenomenon is in large part a reaction of Middle America to attacks on its values by intellectual and academic communities. There are other reasons, but this is a significant one.

How can a president not be an actor?

Actually, to be an effective person politically in this country, I think you have to be thirty or over, and also you have to be rich, well-placed, you have to be close to power. And I don’t think that young people, because they look young, can do much, as I think they are counterproductive.

Read my lips: no new taxes.

Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance.

The intersection of law, politics, and technology is going to force a lot of good thinking.

I’m not a big politics guy.

Democracy passes into despotism.

I am the son of a freedom fighter, and a son of a freedom fighter automatically imbibes the value of democracy.

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.

When you work as a humanitarian, you are conscious that politics have to be considered. Because if you really want to make an extreme change, then you have a responsibility.

I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.

Foreigners don’t want to invest any more in France – and this is not working.

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

You’ve got to watch the politics of AIDS. The politics of AIDS can work both for and against the victims of AIDS.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

I think Hillary Clinton is a phenomenal woman, and I’ve gotten to know her, and I think she’s made some pretty major contributions over the course of her life.

If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.

I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic.

There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down. When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. I’ll just put the stool out there and I’ll talk to Mr. Obama and ask him why he didn’t keep all of the promises he made to everybody.

It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention. Most of all, democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some narrow interest.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

I’m highly political. I spend an awful lot of time in the U.S. trying to influence decision-makers. But I don’t feel in tune with British politics.

This election is about who’s going to be the next President of the United States!

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the government. The government will not use force unless force is used against it.

War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.

There’s a lot of fuss on the Left about election irregularities, like, you know, the voting machines were tampered with, they didn’t count the votes right, and so on. That’s all accurate and of some importance, but of far more importance is the fact that elections just don’t take place, not in any meaningful sense of the term ‚election.‘

I’m the president of the United States. I’m not the emperor of the United States.

Americans… still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.

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.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

I have never really thought that the Left was much in ‚array‘ as far as political purposes were concerned.

Politics, according to the Social Doctrine of the Church, is one of the highest forms of charity, because it serves the common good. I cannot wash my hands, eh? We all have to give something!

The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world – no ideals.

Politics is applesauce.

Let me even say before I even get inaugurated, during the transition we are going to be having meetings all across the country with community organizations so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America.

For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.