There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

Read my lips: no new taxes.

We call first truths those we discover after all the others.

I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

I don’t think that faith, whatever you’re being faithful about, really can be scientifically explained. And I don’t want to explain this whole life business through truth, science. There’s so much mystery. There’s so much awe.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Philosophers have not kept up with modern developments in science. Particularly physics.

You cannot step into the same river twice.

I have no delusions about my likability in every scenario. I know that in order to get things done the way you want them, oftentimes your position will be unpopular.

The Chinese government wants me to say that for many centuries Tibet has been part of China. Even if I make that statement, many people would just laugh. And my statement will not change past history. History is history.

An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

The good of the people is the greatest law.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

Obamacare sucks, it can’t be fixed.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out… without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

I really don’t like women who try to be men. All these politicians, I think they’re horrendous. We could have a brilliant future, but we have this terrible male vision of destroying everything. They’d better sort themselves out and become more womanly.

If we go on your iPhone and go to the dictionary and look up ‚humble,‘ 80 per cent of the definition is negative. It’s a controlling word. It’s a way to control the masses and to control the sheep.

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

We have observed that, in society and the world in which we live, selfishness has increased more than love for others, and that men of good will must work, each with his own strengths and expertise, to ensure that love for others increases until it is equal and possibly exceeds love for oneself.

Governance should be designed as an equalizer. Democrats are more inclined towards working families and those who are struggling for a better life.

We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt.

I do not concern myself with gods and spirits either good or evil nor do I serve any.

Is life worth living? It all depends on the liver.

Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed.

One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice-president, and that one word is ‚to be prepared‘.

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

People forget… that we structured it so that the government, or the people, would be repaid with a really good rate of return. And as it turns out, that aspect of TARP, that’s what happened.

This is the truth: as from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

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.‘

What we need is a system of thought – you might even call it a religion – that can bind humans together. A system that would fit the Republic of Chad as well as the United States: a system that would supply our idealistic young people with something to believe in.

Gray Davis can run a dirty campaign better than anyone, but he can’t run a state.

As president, I’m committed to making Washington work better and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

The President is always abused. If he isn’t, he isn’t doing anything.

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we – we own this country. We – we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

Whether if soul did not exist time would exist or not, is a question that may fairly be asked; for if there cannot be someone to count there cannot be anything that can be counted, so that evidently there cannot be number; for number is either what has been, or what can be, counted.

Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.

Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we’re atheist. Our existence is beyond our understanding. No one has an answer.

One must steer, not talk.

Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

Listen, I think that people want a president who is going to be interested in the things that keep them up at night, the things that are weighing on them, the things that are debilitating and can be addressed.

The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

After your death you will be what you were before your birth.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

I don’t think consensus-building politics is what I’m meant to be doing.

I like America, just as everybody else does. I love America, I gotta say that. But America will be judged.

Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.