This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

The tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

Socialism is the same as Communism, only better English.

Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.

There’s a lack of people in power that are motivated by the idea of helping people.

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

There might be some serious fun in politics.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president… is morally treasonable to the American public.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t ruled politics out.

All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

I am an anarchist in politics and an impressionist in art as well as a symbolist in literature. Not that I understand what these terms mean, but I take them to be all merely synonyms of pessimist.

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

Politically there were failures. And also on the personal level, there were tremendous failures.

I just think it is important that you realize, that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.

I have been a firm believer in the federal structure of our country as enshrined in the Constitution.

So people are talking about revolution. What a revolution it would be to have a woman president.

A lot of people are realizing they had the wool pulled over their eyes by Obama.

Israel is a pretty crazy state.

How easy it is to govern when one follows a system of consulting the will of the people and one holds as the only norm all the actions which contribute to the well being of the people.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument… an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.

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

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to let the – he said in the first 100 days he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules – unchain Wall Street. They’re gonna put y’all back in chains.

When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

I am not made for politics because I am incapable of wanting or accepting the death of the adversary.

As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view.

When I was elected President nobody asked me to negotiate between Israel and Egypt. It was not even a question raised in my campaign. But I felt that one of the reasons that I was elected President was to try to bring peace to the Holy Land.

I would rather have peace in the world than be President.

Nobody wants to put the creditworthiness of the United States in jeopardy. Nobody wants to see the United States default. So we’ve got to seize this moment, and we have to seize it soon.

In a world of complex threats, our security and leadership depends on all elements of our power – including strong and principled diplomacy.

When a pile of cups is tottering on the edge of the table and you warn that they will crash to the ground, in South Africa you are blamed when that happens.

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.

I think that people are tired. They’re tired of the same old kind of politics. People want a new tone to politics.

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.

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

I’m not a conservative of any kind.

I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

It’s plain hokum. If you can’t convince ‚em, confuse ‚em. It’s an old political trick. But this time it won’t work.

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.

Anywhere in Latin America there is a potential threat of the pathology of caudillismo and it has to be guarded against.

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.

I think America has always been polarized.

Suppose I criticise Iran. What impact does that have? The only impact it has is in fortifying those who want to carry out policies I don’t agree with, like bombing.

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.

If… many influential people have failed to understand, or have just forgotten, what we were up against in the Cold War and how we overcame it, they are not going to be capable of securing, let alone enlarging, the gains that liberty has made.

Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.

Read my lips: no new taxes.

The momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable – and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power Who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true.

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.

I realized why directors are such horrible people – in a way – because you want things to be right, and people will just not listen to you, and there is no time to be nice to people, no time to be delicate.

Democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.