Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.

No woman in my time will be prime minister or chancellor or foreign secretary – not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to be prime minister; you have to give yourself 100 percent.

You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

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

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

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

A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.

But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke – I’d leave meetings crying all the time.

Ninety-nine percent of the men and women of the FBI… are just professionals. I don’t want Americans, if an FBI agent knocks on their door, to have to be worried about well, is he a Democrat or a Republican? He’s an FBI agent.

Suppose I criticise Iran. What impact does that have? The only impact it has is in fortifying those who want to carry out policies I don’t agree with, like bombing.

My son Emilio is running for Congress to continue the fight for social justice.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife.

In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.

There are some women I definitely would not want to succeed me… but a man like David Souter, that would be great.

Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to let the – he said in the first 100 days he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules – unchain Wall Street. They’re gonna put y’all back in chains.

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

As commanders and staff officers, we are coaches and sentries for our units: how can we coach anything if we don’t know a hell of a lot more than just the TTPs?

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.

There’s only one person in this race who will be there, who’s always been there for you, and that’s Hillary Clinton’s life story.

I have learned, in my life and work as a sportswriter, that big-time Sports and big-time Politics are not so far apart in America. They are both a means to the same end, which is victory… And why not? Victory is good for you, and don’t let anybody tell you different.

About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.

My favourite president, and the one I admired most, was Harry Truman.

Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.

If you’re looking for the safe choice, you shouldn’t be supporting a black guy named Barack Obama to be the next leader of the free world.

If I made a commitment, I stood by that commitment – and try to make it real. Because when you become leaders, the most important thing you have is your word, your trust. That’s where respect comes from.

Personally, I’d like to see more of our leaders take a technocratic approach to solving our biggest problems.

It’s not just a matter of whether you support Obama or Romney. It’s who they have coming with them. I always keep my powder dry, as they say in the military.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.

Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.

The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.

Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.

I’ve seen how the issues that come across a president’s desk are always the hard ones – the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer.

You can’t get a contemporary story about what is going on inside government, and how society sees itself, on American TV.

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

I have seen how leaders rule by intimidation. Leaders who demonize and dehumanize entire groups of people often do so because they have nothing else to offer. And I have seen how places that stifle the voices and dismiss the potential of their citizens are diminished: how they are less vital, less hopeful, less free.

I believe God wants you to have money to pay your bills, send your kids to college and do charity work and build orphanages. There’s the teaching that we’re supposed to be poor to show that we’re humble. I don’t buy that. I think we’re supposed to be leaders. We’re supposed to excel.

One man with courage is a majority.

Well, I have great respect for Senator Hirono.

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.

Politics is just a function of business now, just a tributary of the great entrepreneurial capitalist system.

I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.

The army teaches boys to think like men.

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.

I loved being Secretary of State, that’s probably evident to everyone who watched me.

He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.

Half a truth is better than no politics.

The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.

George Bush made a mistake when he referred to the Saddam Hussein regime as ‚evil.‘ Every liberal and leftist knows how to titter at such black-and-white moral absolutism.

It sure is hell to be president.

Some people want to win races. Other people want to be President of the United States.