Winning the election is a good-news, bad-news kind of thing. Okay, now you’re the mayor. The bad news is, now you’re the mayor.

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

History reminds us that dictators and despots arise during times of severe economic crisis.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

If you have embraced a creed which appears to be free from the ordinary dirtiness of politics – a creed from which you yourself cannot expect to draw any material advantage – surely that proves that you are in the right?

Rude people will now & then ask me why I think I know so much about Politics. I tell them it’s because I’m Smart… But that is a lie: The real reason is because I’m an incurable Gambling addict.

I don’t really regard myself as a political figure.

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.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

I’ll assure you this: I will have nothing to do with politics.

I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.

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

I just didn’t want to get out there anymore; I didn’t want to get back into what I call ‚the swamp.‘ And the other reason why is I don’t think it’s good for the presidency for a former president to be opining about his successor. President Obama’s got plenty of critics – and I’m just not gonna be one.

If people continue to feel like Democrats are looking after poor folks and Republicans are looking after rich folks and nobody is looking after me, then we don’t get a lot of stuff done. And the trend lines evidence the fact that folks have gotten squeezed. And obviously, 2007, 2008 really ripped open for people how vulnerable they were.

I think my message to the politicians who have within their power the ability to make change is, ‚Do you really, really not care about the future of your great-grandchildren? Because if we let the world continue to be destroyed the way we are now, what’s the world going to be like for your great-grandchildren?‘

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America – there’s the United States of America.

While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.

Sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win.

Politics are a very unsatisfactory game.

I am often asked if, when I was secretary, I had problems with foreign men. That is not who I had problems with, because I arrived in a very large plane that said United States of America. I had more problems with the men in our own government.

A President cannot always be popular.

Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.

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

Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven’t had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln.

Man is not free unless government is limited.

I’m not a conservative of any kind.

It is a fine game to play – the game of politics – and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.

The President’s post should not be politicised. Once a president is elected, he is above politics.

‚Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age‘ was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant’s thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed out of the Stone Age.

Part of the problem is there are people in Washington, D.C. in positions of power to whom the border is just a nuisance, and I think some of them believe that illegal immigration is a moral good. It is not. It undermines legal immigration.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

Politics is a noble activity. We should revalue it, practise it with vocation and a dedication that requires testimony, martyrdom, that is to die for the common good.

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

Latinos are Republican. They just don’t know it yet.

Unlike presidential administrations, problems rarely have terminal dates.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what’s going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?

John F. Kennedy was the victim of the hate that was a part of our country. It is a disease that occupies the minds of the few but brings danger to the many.

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

I think that both parties should declare the debt limit as a political weapon of mass destruction which can’t be used. I mean, it is silly to have a country that has 237 years building up its reputation and then have people threaten to tear it down because they’re not getting some other matter.

I’ve analyzed the best I can… and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course.

I don’t see any possibility of Britain and the U.S. allowing a sovereign independent Iraq; that’s almost inconceivable.

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

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

Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both had exceptional natural abilities. Nelson Rockefeller was very good statewide but never gained national traction.

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

I know Gov. Christie. We’ve met a couple of times.

There’s no way now for you to get a Democratic or Republican nomination without being able to raise $200 or $300 million or more. I would not be inclined to do that, and I would not be capable of doing it.

Let me just be very clear that the Republican Party will select a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton.

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

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise. But when Governor Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy – well, you do the math. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I’m President, I never will.

Trump just looks stupid trying to appeal to blacks and Latinos.

That fatal drollery called a representative government.

A gaffe in Washington is someone telling the truth, and telling the truth has never hurt me.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.