For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

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.

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I’m not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does.

I think there ought to be a strict separation or wall built between our religious faith and our practice of political authority in office. I don’t think the President of the United States should extoll Christianity if he happens to be a Christian at the expense of Judaism, Islam or other faiths.

The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.

There are three constants in life… change, choice and principles.

I don’t like the name, U2, actually.

For all who love freedom and peace, the world without Saddam Hussein’s regime is a better and safer place.

I seldom think of politics more than eighteen hours a day.

Politics doesn’t make strange bedfellows – marriage does.

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

In South Korea, they believe that when you turn 60, you’ve become a baby again and the rest of your life should be totally about joy and happiness, and people should leave you alone, and I just think that that’s the height of intelligence.

I think music is something that can, and should, be used to get you into different things because eventually what goes up must come down – we’re not going to be the number one group in the world forever – so you have to have something else to fall back on.

I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.

Unlike Europe, China can’t be intimidated. Europe backs down if the United States looks at it the wrong way. But China, they’ve been there for 3,000 years and are paying no attention to the barbarians and don’t see any need to.

People love conspiracy theories.

I think ‚Invisible‘ is a great song, but I don’t know how accessible it is.

The government of Israel doesn’t like the kinds of things I say, which puts them into the same category as every other government in the world.

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.

Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.

I’ve got a feeling that music might not be the most interesting place to be in the world of things.

I think we’re about ready for a new feeling to enter music. I think that will come from the Arabic world.

Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

I don’t like to feel like I’m in a club when I’m in my car and I turn on the radio. Anything that ceases to be a song and just sounds like house music kind of stresses me out.

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.

The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

I always say, you gotta play a dive bar like you play an arena, and you play an arena like you play a dive bar.

I sang a lot of low stuff on songs like ‚Secrets‘ and ‚Rockin‘,‘ almost like Toni Braxton. On ‚Secrets,‘ I’m a different person.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

With Benghazi, I don’t see anyone saying, ‚Hey look, I am overall responsible for this and therefore, I take responsibility for what happened. It’s my fault.‘ I haven’t heard that yet. Meanwhile, the other side of the coin, the Osama bin Laden raid, it seems everyone made that decision, and that’s just unbelievable to me.

I’m not a reality-TV kind of guy. But it’s almost like we’re living in a reality show. Every day in this country, everybody keeps worrying about the deterioration of America, and it’s like a big reality show.

Whatever starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread.

I’m always disappointed when people don’t live up to their potential. I know that a number of people look down on themselves and consequently on everybody who looks like them. But that, too, can change.

While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man’s humanity to man.

I play piano every day. I enjoy that.

The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one’s people that has not previously been taken into account.

I don’t think culture is something you can describe.

I did not learn the flaws of the criminal-justice system in law school or college or by reading about it. I grew up knowing the flaws and how it was disproportionately impacting the black community. It’s not academic for me.

I sure lost my musical direction in Hollywood. My songs were the same conveyer belt mass production, just like most of my movies were.

Whenever I think about movies, I always look at that art process as having the best of a lot of worlds. Because if you watch a great film, you have a musical element to it, not just on the scoring, but in the way that the shots are edited – that has music and rhythm and time.

John Lennon was definitely my favorite Beatle, hands down.

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

When we started, a lot of bands sounded really different from one another.

I don’t really believe in the type of pressure that people are wanting to put on the type of music that I make.

All of my music is honest.

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.

Israel is a pretty crazy state.

Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else.

Language is a weapon of politicians, but language is a weapon in much of human affairs.

U2 is an original species… there are colours and feelings and emotional terrain that we occupy that is ours and ours alone.

A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.

I guess you’d call me an independent, since I’ve never identified myself with one party or another in politics. I always decide my vote by taking as careful a look as I can at the actual candidates and issues themselves, no matter what the party label.

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.

What you’re seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they’re directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.