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.

If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.

It’s passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.

I have a reputation for taking on governors a lot more powerful than me.

Politicians love regulating. That’s part of the whole power structure.

You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned? Wait till I whup George Foreman’s behind.

I was distressed that after 9/11, when the United States was attacked by terrorists, the United States‘ response was to attack Afghanistan, where some of the terrorists had been.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

All respect for the office of the presidency aside, I assumed that the obvious and unadulterated decline of freedom and constitutional sovereignty, not to mention the efforts to curb the power of judicial review, spoke for itself.

A piece of spaghetti or a military unit can only be led from the front end.

Democracy passes into despotism.

The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

Locally, I’ll vote one way and nationally, maybe another.

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

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels.

In my heart, I’m confident I could make a good president.

Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel.

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President.

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

By disgracing and degrading the presidency of the United States, by fleeing the White House like a diseased cur, Richard Nixon broke the heart of the American Dream.

I think that slavery is wrong, morally, socially and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union.

Since the team understands that the leader is de facto in charge, in that respect, a leader has nothing to prove. But in another respect, a leader has everything to prove: Every member of the team must develop the trust and confidence that their leader will exercise good judgment, remain calm, and make the right decisions when it matters most.

I know that I always wanted things. I was always proud of my people, proud of my home, but I always wanted more. I think most people do.

I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.

Success comes to those who have an entire mountain of gold that they continually mine, not those who find one nugget and try to live on it for fifty years.

Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.

The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

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.

Ambition is the immoderate desire for power.

There’s no reason why I can’t be a mogul. When I step into a room and I’m there to have a conversation, if it pertains to business, I want to be respected as a guy who knows what he’s talking about. And that, to me, holds more weight than anything else.

We’ve persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people – a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it’s time to turn the page.

We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.

When we are sick, we want an uncommon doctor; when we have a construction job to do, we want an uncommon engineer, and when we are at war, we want an uncommon general. It is only when we get into politics that we are satisfied with the common man.

All my authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

The intersection of law, politics, and technology is going to force a lot of good thinking.

I’m asking myself, ‚What do my girls, what do all our children deserve in their president? What kind of a president do we want for them?‘ Well, to start with, I think we want someone who is a unifying force in this country: someone who sees our differences not as a threat, but as a blessing.

If you ever injected truth into politics you have no politics.

You know, one of the things I think you understand as president is you’re held responsible for everything, but you don’t always have control of everything, right?

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

I think politicians really go with the tide.

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.

Through every victory and every setback, I’ve insisted that change is never easy and never quick; that we wouldn’t meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime.

It is true that the king has made a truce with the duke of Burgundy for fifteen days and that the duke is to turn over the city of Paris at the end of fifteen days. Yet you should not marvel if I do not enter that city so quickly.

In 2008, I spoke out against calling the president a Muslim as if that was a curse. And then in 2012, once again, I was very disturbed about some of the intolerance I was seeing in the party, so I made a statement saying there’s a level of intolerance in some parts of the Republican Party. And there was, and I think there still is.

Well, I have great respect for Senator Hirono.

The colonel replied that he didn’t care how my men had got the job done. He was happy that it had been accomplished. He said that, obviously, no matter how much or how little I knew technically, I was able to get the best out of people I worked with.

I supported Donald Trump.

The fundamental question I believe is, ‚Is political Islam in our best interest?‘ If not, what is our policy to authoritatively support the countervailing forces?

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places.

My idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system now doesn’t work either for the United States or the world, driving it from crisis to crisis, which are each time more serious.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

As president, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values and your vision and the life experiences that make you who you are.

People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I earned everything I’ve got.

King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the British nation in political life to their talking politics after dinner.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

That’s the good thing about being president, I can do whatever I want.