We all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn’t come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn’t resurging. It didn’t work out.

We should not look at terrorism from the nameplates – which group they belong to, what is their geographical location, who are the victims. These individual groups or names will keep changing.

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

The global importance of the Middle East is that it keeps the Far East and the Near East from encroaching on each other.

As far as U.S. intelligence knows, Iran is developing nuclear capacities, but they don’t know if they are trying to develop nuclear weapons or not. Chances are they’re developing what’s called ‚nuclear capability,‘ which many states have. That is the ability to have nuclear weapons if they decide to do it. That’s not a crime.

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.

Democracy passes into despotism.

I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.

Pakistan will never be able to match the Indian militarily, and the effort to do so is taking an immense toll on the society.

A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy.

You will kill 10 of our men, and we will kill 1 of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it.

The income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf.

In time of war the laws are silent.

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated.

The U.S. couldn’t even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They’ll be killing each other again in less than a year. I’m sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits.

It is a virtual reflex for governments to plead security concerns when they undertake any controversial action, often as a pretext for something else.

Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots.

Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

The question really is, are you improving the world? And you can do that in many models. You can do that in government, you can do that in a nonprofit, and you can do it in commercial enterprise.

Iran is not an enemy of ISIS; they have a lot to gain from the turmoil that ISIS creates.

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

Anger is wonderful. It keeps you going. I’m angry about bankers. About the government.

Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.

I can’t really criticize the Tea Party people, because I came into the White House pretty much on the same basis that they have become popular. That is dissatisfaction with the way things are going in Washington and disillusionment and disencouragement about the government.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years.

I hate violence, yes I do. It’s kind of a dilemma, huh?.

Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it… You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.

You can think of the entire Internet as a place where ideas embodied in cyberspace are having a war, and it’s not much different than the war of gods in heaven, which has been taking place since there’s been human beings.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.

War had always seemed to me to be a purely human behavior. Accounts of warlike behavior date back to the very first written records of human history; it seemed to be an almost universal characteristic of human groups.

Man becomes his most creative during war.

The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.

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.

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.

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.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

I think a lot of people, including me, clammed up when a civilian asked about battle, about war. It was fashionable. One of the most impressive ways to tell your war story is to refuse to tell it, you know. Civilians would then have to imagine all kinds of deeds of derring-do.

By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.

War is the business of barbarians.

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.

As this long and difficult war ends, I would like to address a few special words to the American people: Your steadfastness in supporting our insistence on peace with honor has made peace with honor possible.

In war there is no prize for runner-up.

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

The U.S. immigration laws are bad – really, really bad. I’d say treatment of immigrants is one of the greatest injustices done in our government’s name.

We cannot be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of the weapons of war.

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

If you look back at the history of the twentieth century, Germany alone had practically destroyed Russia several times.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

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.

If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win.