And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet.

If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.

Jewelry and pins have been worn throughout history as symbols of power, sending messages. Interestingly enough, it was mostly men who wore the jewelry in various times, and obviously crowns were part of signals that were being sent throughout history by people of rank.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

The most obvious characteristic of science is its application: the fact that, as a consequence of science, one has a power to do things. And the effect this power has had need hardly be mentioned. The whole industrial revolution would almost have been impossible without the development of science.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

I have been in meetings where a head of state will say, ‚I like your tie,‘ to a man… or, ‚I like your country because the weather’s good,‘ or whatever. So for me, the pins in some ways were openers.

Here in England, everyone’s a pop star, innit, whereas in America they believe in the term artist.

It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.

We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

I’d done a lot of research in Hollywood and in academia. I love research and so I wanted to kind of ground the book in history, in things that I read that were universal and timeless and then kind of let my own experiences sort of filter through all of this history.

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

Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents had always been tragic.

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?

The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments‘ plans.

Women deeply want men who are competent and powerful. And I don’t mean power in that they can exert tyrannical control over others. That’s not power. That’s just corruption.

Affluence means influence.

This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

I’m not a politician. And I don’t want to be.

Politics is applesauce.

Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.

Every President I think I’ve ever known, except Truman, has thought they didn’t quite get done what they wanted done. And toward the end of their Administrations, they were disappointed and wished they had done some things differently.

In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.

What Britain needs is an iron lady.

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.

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

If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.

If you look at the history of Notre Dame, if you hire a coach who’s been successful at another college program, they’re going to be ultra successful at Notre Dame because the talent will always be there.

No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there.

History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.

When you are organizing a group of people, the first thing that we do is we talk about the history of what other people have been able to accomplish – people that look like them, workers like them, ordinary people, working people – and we give them the list: these are people like yourself; this is what they were able to do in their community.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

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.

I know that campaigns can seem small, and even silly. Trivial things become big distractions. Serious issues become sound bites. And the truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. If you’re sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me – so am I.

There are still people in my party who believe in consensus politics. I regard them as Quislings, as traitors… I mean it.

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

I have considered voting Conservative because I am so against the Labour party.

There has been a huge attack against private sector unions. Actually, that’s been going on since the Second World War.

If you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

If somebody’s dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they’re going to have to take what they get.

Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance – the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it; better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen.

I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American.

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

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.

We need an adult in the White House. When making life-or-death, war-or-peace decisions, a president can’t just pop off or lash out irrationally.

Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement.

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

At least the Pilgrim Fathers used to shoot Indians: the Pilgrim Children merely punch time clocks.

Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm.

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare – all else is lost.

I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.

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

War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.

The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.

Power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most serious of facts.

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

It was the Congress that imposed ‚Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,‘ it was certainly my position, my recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred.