When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.

A few years ago, the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved bowls… saying that it is cruel to keep a fish in a bowl with curved sides because, gazing out, the fish would have a distorted view of reality. But how do we know we have the true, undistorted picture of reality?

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

I think politicians really go with the tide.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

I’ve never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a ‚fat cat‘ and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a ‚public-spirited philanthropist‘.

Loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

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

I have not endorsed Trump and will not do so.

Obama, of course, outspent McCain.

If people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.

You can’t just have slogans, you can’t just have catchy phrases. You have to have an agenda. And I think what the Republican Party has to do, if it’s going to incorporate the tea party efforts in it, is to come up with an agenda that the American people can see, touch, and actually believe in, and something they believe in.

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.

Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.

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!

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.

There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.

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

Hillary doesn’t play. She has more experience and exposure to the presidency than any candidate in our lifetime – yes, more than Barack, more than Bill. So she is absolutely ready to be Commander-in-Chief on day one. And, yes, she happens to be a woman.

Doing well is the result of doing good. That’s what capitalism is all about.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.

As president, Reagan worked very well with Democrats to do big things. It is true that he worked to reduce the size of government and cut federal taxes and he eliminated many regulations, but he also raised taxes when necessary.

One of the great questions of philosophy is, do we innately have morality, or do we get it from celestial dictation? A study of the Ten Commandments is a very good way of getting into and resolving that issue.

There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

Honor is the reward of virtue.

A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.

What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

Political courage is not political suicide.

I played by the rules of politics as I found them.

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.

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.

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.

Good jokes are gems. A good idea is hard to come by. I couldn’t give them to someone else, even for money. It just wouldn’t seem right.

I don’t usually admire Sarah Palin, but when she was making fun of this ‚hopey changey stuff,‘ she was right: there was nothing there.

We think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this.

I have decided in 2020 to run for president.

One of the things being in politics has taught me is that men are not a reasoned or reasonable sex.

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.

To govern means to pillage, as everyone knows.

I was a little worried that young people would think the only game was being political and manipulative when really the bigger game is being so good at what you do that nobody can argue with your results.

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

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

Those newspapers of the nation which most loudly cried dictatorship against me would have been the first to justify the beginnings of dictatorship by somebody else.

If you’re sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign.

Mortals are easily tempted to pinch the life out of their neighbour’s buzzing glory, and think that such killing is no murder.

There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

Polygamy: An endeavour to get more out of life than there is in it.

The time has come for us to draw the line. The time has come for the responsible leaders of both political parties to take a stand against overgrown Government and for the American taxpayer.

It’s been my experience in politics that you can try and plan it out: ‚I’m going to hit the three ball which will hit the eight ball.‘ You’ve just got to go run and try to do everything right. And then have a little luck.

I personally never expected anything of Obama, and wrote about it before the 2008 primaries. I thought it was smoke and mirrors.

I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.

I don’t think President Trump is a racist.

History shows that, more often than not, loss of sovereignty leads to liberalisation imposed in the interests of the powerful.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.

For a war to be just three conditions are necessary – public authority, just cause, right motive.