When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you’ve got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I’m not sure any country, either the United States or I don’t hear of anyone else, who’s willing to take on that responsibility.

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

Man is fully responsible for his nature and his choices.

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.

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

How wonderful it is to be an American. We have known the best of times and the worst of times.

You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don’t seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together.

At first, I was called a quack, a charlatan, and worse, year after year, in Australia, England and the United States, by men who simply refused to believe that a nurse from ‚the bush‘ could devise a treatment which succeeded where they had failed.

The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.

Nowhere is it written that there must be conflict between the United States and China.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.

I want to marry Arline because I love her – which means I want to take care of her. That is all there is to it. I want to take care of her. I am anxious for the responsibilities and uncertainties of taking care of the girl I love.

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.

The buck stops here!

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

To restore the trust of the people, we must reform the way the government operates.

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.

My momma didn’t clean up floors so I could be a thug… so I could wear my pants down.

People make a big fuss over you when you’re President. But I’m very serious about doing everything I can to make sure that it doesn’t go to my head.

Withdrawal of American troops must be a unilateral act, as the invasion of Vietnam by the American government was a unilateral act in the first place.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

It is important that the United States remain a two-party system. I’m a fellow who likes small parties and the Republican Party can’t be too small to suit me.

Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

That our government should have been maintained in its original form from its establishment until now is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period, it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now, it is understood to be a successful one.

The United States never stopped conspiring against the Arab world, which holds the largest oil reserves on the planet.

In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.

I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office.

Romania, which had the worst dictator in Eastern Europe, Ceausescu, he was a darling of the West. The United States and Britain loved him. He was supported until the last minute.

We did not choose to be the guardians of the gate, but there is no one else.

The great thing about having a bunch of kids is they just remind you that you’re the person who takes them to go poop!

I do the dishes every night – other people volunteer, but I like the way I do it.

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples‘ money.

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.

We are a forward-looking people, and we must have a forward-looking government.

The government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders.

The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification.

Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.

The United States is a violent military state. It’s been involved in military action all over the place.

No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.

Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn’t mean I won’t run.

Duty cannot exist without faith.

A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.

Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

What I believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all – the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead.

I take a lot of pride in the work I do, because people pay to see me. They’ve got to get babysitters, park their car, get popcorn and candy. I’ve got to be conscious of that.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

The U.S. increasingly has taken on the characteristics of what we describe as ‚failed states.‘

What we will do is we’ll say, ‚Okay, you have your page, and if you’re not trying to organize harm against someone, or attacking someone, then you can put up that content on your page, even if people might disagree with it or find it offensive.‘ But that doesn’t mean that we have a responsibility to make it widely distributed in News Feed.

Understand, when you eat meat, that something did die. You have an obligation to value it – not just the sirloin but also all those wonderful tough little bits.

Let’s teach kids, at the kindergarten level, what the contributions of people of color were to building the United States of America.

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

It’s a good thing we don’t get all the government we pay for.

Those who commit injustice bear the greatest burden.

Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.

When you’re around the kids, you feel like you act the most grown up just because you’re supposed to lead. I say things, like every other parent, that reminds you of your own parents. One thing I do know about being a parent, you understand why your father was in a bad mood a lot.

So far as the government is concerned, there is only one holy book, which is the constitution of India. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion.

Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.

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.