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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- A -
A woman's place is in the house - the House of Representatives.
Bella Abzug

I spend all day figuring out how to beat the machine and knock the crap out of the political power structure.
Bella Abzug

I'm a politician. I run for office. That's my profession.
Bella Abzug

Imperfect though it may be, the Beijing Platform for Action is the strongest statement of consensus on women's equality, empowerment and justice ever produced by governments.
Bella Abzug

Our struggle was political, ideological and economic, and we felt we couldn't make something of ourselves unless we bettered society. We saw the two together.
Bella Abzug

The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.
Bella Abzug

We are bringing women into politics to change the nature of politics, to change the vision, to change the institutions. Women are not wedded to the policies of the past. We didn't craft them. They didn't let us.
Bella Abzug

A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.
Dean Acheson

I will undoubtedly have to seek what is happily known as gainful employment, which I am glad to say does not describe holding public office.
Dean Acheson

No people in history have ever survived who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies.
Dean Acheson

The most important aspect of the relationship between the president and the secretary of state is that they both understand who is president.
Dean Acheson

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
John Adams

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.
John Quincy Adams

Democracy, pure democracy, has at least its foundation in a generous theory of human rights. It is founded on the natural equality of mankind. It is the cornerstone of the Christian religion. It is the first element of all lawful government upon earth.
John Quincy Adams

The Declaration of Independence pronounced the irrevocable decree of political separation, between the United States and their people on the one part, and the British king, government, and nation on the other.
John Quincy Adams

The great object of the institution of civil government is the improvement of those who are parties to the social compact.
John Quincy Adams

The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.
John Quincy Adams

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
Aesop

If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.
KTVI-TV interview on August 19, 2012.
Todd Akin

Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility. Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on a dunghill.
Richard Aldington

Let's give a welcome to Macaca here.
George Allen

The incestuous relationship between government and big business thrives in the dark.
Jack Anderson

There are three kinds of lie: a small lie, a big lie and politics.
Time Magazine
Anonymous

There are three statements that you should never believe: (1) A cheque is in the post; (2) I am from the Government and I am here to help you; (3) Of course, darling, I will still respect you in the morning.
Cassell's Humorous Quotations
Anonymous

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- B -
Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.
Francis Bacon

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainty.
Francis Bacon

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
Francis Bacon

Had the employers of past generations all of them dealt fairly with their employees there would have been no unions.
Stanley Baldwin

Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
Bernard Baruch

All war represents is a failure of diplomacy.
Tony Benn

Normally, people give up parliament because they want to do more business or spend more time with family. My wife said why don't you say you're giving up to devote more time to politics?. And it is what I have done.
Tony Benn

Under current law, on January 1st, 2013, there is going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases.
House Committee on Financial Services on February 29, 2012.
Ben Bernanke

Poor fellow, he suffers from files.
Aneurin Bevan

We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.
Aneurin Bevan

Will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it.
Referring to the National Health Service (NHS).
Aneurin Bevan

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.
Joe Biden

If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't Black.
In an interview with The Breakfast Club radio program, May 22, 2020.
Joe Biden

Isn't it a bitch? I mean, ... this vice president thing?
Response to a student body vice president at Harvard College, Oct. 2, 2014.
Joe Biden

Let's build back better.
Joe Biden

Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids.
Remarks made to Asian and Latino Coalition, Des Moines, Iowa, August 8, 2019.
Joe Biden

We have to be remembered for what's been done.
Joe Biden

You're a lying dog-faced pony soldier.
Remark made to a student at a campaign event, Hampton, New Hampshire, February 9, 2020.
Joe Biden

I do not regard the procuring of peace as a matter in which we should play the role of arbiter between different opinions ... more that of an honest broker who really wants to press the business forward.
Otto von Bismarck

Politics is the art of the possible.
Otto von Bismarck

The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.
Tony Blair

If you are not yourself, if you surrender your personality, you have nothing left to give the world. You have no pleasure, no use, nothing which will attract and charm me, for by the suppression of your individuality, you lose your distinctive character.
Edward Wilmot Blyden

Guidelines for bureaucrats: (1) When in charge, ponder. (2) When in trouble, delegate. (3) When in doubt, mumble.
James Boren

I have what it takes to take what you've got.
James Boren

It is hard to look up to a leader who keeps his ear to the ground.
James Boren

What poor education I have received has been gained in the University of Life.
Horatio Bottomley

I know that upon 4th of July, our 4th of July orators talk of Liberty, while three million of their own country men are groaning in abject Slavery. This is called the land of the free and the home of the brave; it is called the asylum of the oppressed; and some have been foolish enough to call it the Cradle of Liberty. If it is the cradle of liberty, they have rocked the child to death. It is dead long since, and yet we talk about democracy and republicanism, while one-sixth of our countrymen are clanking their chains upon the very soil which our fathers moistened with their blood.
William Wells Brown

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.
Op-ed from the New York Times on Monday, August 15, 2011.
Warren Buffett

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Attributed.
Edmund Burke

Too bad that all the people who really know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.
George Burns

Globalization has much potential. It could be the answer to many of the world's seemingly intractable problems. But this requires strong democratic foundations based on a political will to ensure equity and justice.
Sharan Burrow

Who knows, somewhere out there in the audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps and preside over the White House as the President's spouse. I wish him well.
Barbara Bush

All skills begin with the basics of reading and math, which are supposed to be learned in the early grades of our schools. Yet for too long, for too many children, those skills were never mastered.
George W. Bush

Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.
To FEMA director Michael Brown, who resigned 10 days later amid criticism over his handling of the Hurricane Katrina debacle.
George W. Bush

I really am not the kind of guy that sits here and says, Oh gosh, I'm worried about my legacy.
Quote from an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes on January 14, 2007.
George W. Bush

I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense.
In Washington, D.C.
George W. Bush

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundations of America.
George W. Bush

There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.
In Nashville, Tennessee.
George W. Bush

These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of America's resolve.
George W. Bush

They misunderestimated me.
In Bentonville, Arkansas.
George W. Bush

Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country.
In Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
George W. Bush

You're working hard to put food on your family.
In Greater Nashua, New Hampshire.
George W. Bush

By blaming others, we fail to find the real solutions to our problems and we do not carry out our own responsibilities.
Jeb Bush

Probably nothing.
Jeb Bush

Power intoxicates men. It is never voluntarily surrendered. It must be taken from them.
James F. Byrnes

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- C -
When they ask me, Who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan? I'm going to say, You know, I don't know. Do you know?
Christian Broadcasting Network interview on October 7, 2011.
Herman Cain

And finds, with keen discriminating sight,
Black's not so black; - nor white so very white.

George Canning

Give me the avowed, the erect, the manly foe,
Bold I can meet - perhaps may turn his blow!
But of all plagues, Good Heaven, thy wrath can send,
Save, save, Oh, save me from the candid friend!

George Canning

The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today.
Lewis Carroll

There are two parties involved in every corrupt transaction, typically a government official and a business person. Yet those who pay bribes are often depicted as innocent victims ... The reality is that both parties conspire to defraud the public.
Lynda Chalker

I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge.
WMAZ-TV television interview on November 21, 2012.
Saxby Chambliss

I have a job to do. ... If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don't know me.
Fox News interview about Hurricane Sandy on October 30, 2012.
Chris Christie

Dictators ride to and fro on tigers they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
Winston Churchill

Everyone threw the blame on me ... they nearly always do. I suppose ... they think I shall be able to bear it best.
Winston Churchill

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

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
Winston Churchill

I would like to have been examined in history, poetry and writing essays. The examiners, on the other hand, were partial to Latin and mathematics. And their will prevailed ... I should have liked to be asked to say what I knew. They always tried to ask what I did not know.
Winston Churchill

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations ... The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.
Winston Churchill

Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war.*
*Attribution questionable.
Winston Churchill

Odd things animals. All dogs look up at you. All cats look down at you. Only a pig looks at you as an equal.
Winston Churchill

There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.
Winston Churchill

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.*
*Attribution questionable.
Winston Churchill

Victory has a hundred fathers, but no one wants to recognise defeat as his own.
Galeazzo Ciano

Everything you reprove in another, you must carefully avoid in yourself.
Cicero

Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
Cicero

The sinews of war: unlimited money.
Cicero

I responded in what I thought was the most truthful or least untruthful manner, by saying, No.
Describing his Senate committee hearing testimony denying the NSA collects data on Americans on June 8, 2013.
James Clapper

As we have throughout this century, we will lead with the power of our example, but be prepared, when necessary, to make an example of our power.
Bill Clinton

Great nations need organizing principles, and Don't do stupid stuff is not an organizing principle.
Atlantic Online interview, August 10, 2014.
Hillary Clinton

I don't think they're piling on because I'm a woman. I think they're piling on because I'm winning.
In response to intensifying criticism for the Democratic presidential nomination on November 2, 2007.
Hillary Clinton

In every era, society must strike the right balance between the freedom businesses need to compete for a market share and to make profits and the preservation of family and community values.
Hillary Clinton

(In politics) you need both a public and a private position.
Speech to National Multi-Housing Council released by WikiLeaks, October 7, 2016.
Hillary Clinton

Marriage has got historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time, and I think a marriage is as a marriage always has been, between a man and a woman.
Hillary Clinton

There cannot be true democracy unless women's voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own lives. There cannot be true democracy unless all citizens are able to participate fully in the lives of their country.
Hillary Clinton

Too many companies, especially large ones, are driven more and more narrowly by the need to ensure that investors get good quarterly returns and to justify executives' high salaries. Too often, this means that they view most employees as costs.
Hillary Clinton

We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt.
ABC News interview, June 9, 2014.
Hillary Clinton

What, like with a cloth or something?
Response to a reporter's questions about whether she wiped her server, North Las Vegas, Nevada, August 18, 2015.
Hillary Clinton

You could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.
Remarks at a fundraiser, New York, September 9, 2016.
Hillary Clinton

Women do two thirds of the world's work ... Yet they earn only one tenth of the world's income and own less than one percent of the world's property. They are among the poorest of the world's poor.
Barber Conable

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Leonard Courtney

Government in the U.S. today is a senior partner in every business in the country.
Norman Cousins

When we're dancing with the angels, the question will be asked: In 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact? Did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing? Did we play games?
Closing statement at public hearing of Michael Cohen before House of Representatives Oversight Committee, February 27, 2019.
Elijah Cummings

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- D -
When the private sector gains control over sociological function, then certainly government has failed.
Robert J. Dainard

The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between the requirement that position be taken on current issues as they arise and the desire that one's contributions will somehow survive the ravages of time.
Angela Davis

Never be haughty to the humble; never be humble to the haughty.
Jefferson Davis

If a lady says No, she means Perhaps; if she says Perhaps, she means Yes; if she says Yes, she is no Lady. If a diplomat says Yes, he means Perhaps; if he says Perhaps, he means No; if he says No, he is no Diplomat.
Bertrand Dawson

A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.
Charles de Gaulle

I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets ... If it had not been for the men and women who, in the past, have had the moral courage to go to jail, we would still be in the jungles.
Eugene V. Debs

Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.
Stephen Decatur

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
Demosthenes

To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.
Bernadette Devlin

A fair day's wage for a fair day's work.
Benjamin Disraeli

Is man an ape or an angel? Now I am on the side of the angels.
Benjamin Disraeli

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.
Benjamin Disraeli

There is no education like adversity.
Benjamin Disraeli

Yes, I have climbed to the top of the greasy pole.
Comment made after being appointed prime minister.
Benjamin Disraeli

Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old Age a regret.
Benjamin Disraeli

A Congresswoman must look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, speak on any given subject with authority and most of all work like a dog.
Florence P. Dwyer

Passage of a meaningful equal pay bill will end a long and unfortunate pattern of discrimination against women and it will place the Federal Government in the same desirable position as the 20 states which have enacted equal pay laws. It will help all areas of the economy, men as well as women, by stabilizing wage rates, increasing job security, and discouraging the replacement of men with women at lower rates of pay.
Florence P. Dwyer

bar
- E -
A liberal mind is a mind that is able to imagine itself believing anything.
Max Eastman

Nothing could be more calamitous than for patriotism to become the established religion of this country.
The Religion of Patriotism
Max Eastman

People who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral but in favor of the status quo.
Max Eastman

Socialism is no mean religion. But it is not a religion that binds or blesses the rich and powerful, and so it could hardly become established in a country like ours. For an established religion we needed something a little more like God... a little vaguer and more elegant and better adapted to bind in among other motives the economic self-interest of those who rule. We needed something that would give us the same emotional crystallization without greatly disturbing the profits on capital.
Max Eastman

The words socialist and communist are changing their meaning just as the word Christian did. Just as heretics were burned by thousands in the name of the love of the neighbour, so peasants have been starved by millions in the name of the workers' and peasants' republic. The crude animal egoisms of men and classes of men thus grab ideas and use them, not as heroic lights to action, but as blinds to hide inaction or actions that are too base.
Max Eastman

What is the secret ballot when only one party can run candidates for office, and that the party in power? What is free press and assemblage when no man can form, advocate, or support the platform of any but the gang in power, and when ten to twenty thousand of those who have done so are in jail or exile while you talk about it? What is the whole talk under these conditions about how we are going to give the Russian people the most democratic constitution on earth? Is there any term in the language to describe it except apple-sauce?
The End of Socialism in Russia

Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.
Albert Einstein

In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too!
Elizabeth I

All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means.
Zhou Enlai

I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm, so when I come to Washington, I'll know how to cut pork.
Iowa Senatorial candidate Joni Ernst, campaign advertisement quoted in National Journal, March 25, 2014.
Joni Ernst

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- F -
I'm not giving up politics entirely - I'm just giving up leadership of a political party.
Nigel Farage

You hit a reset button for the fall campaign; everything changes. It's almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.
CNN interview on March 21, 2012.
Eric Fehrnstrom

Administrative purpose usually outruns the facts. Indeed the administrative official's ardor for facts usually begins when he wants to change the facts!
Mary Parker Follett

Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine. Have I tried it? Um, probably in one of my drunken stupors.
Remarks to reporters on November 5, 2013.
Rob Ford

Whatever happens in government could have happened differently, and it usually would have been better if it had.
Charles Frankel

A little neglect may breed mischief ... for want of a nail the shoe was lost.
Benjamin Franklin

Creditors have better memories than debtors.
Benjamin Franklin

God heals and the doctor takes the fees.
Benjamin Franklin

He that falls in love with himself, will have no rivals.
Benjamin Franklin

If you would not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worth reading,
Or do things worth the writing.

Benjamin Franklin

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin

Remember that time is money.
Benjamin Franklin

To sit back and say, Oh, we're going to let the government do whatever they want, right or wrong, is giving up.
Michael Franti

The real problem for any government coming to power is to control the civil servants. They will all explain why it is quite impossible to do things other than the way they are currently done.
Milton Friedman

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- G -
A wrong decision isn't forever; it can always be reversed. The losses from a delayed decision are forever; they can never be retrieved.
John Galbraith

The salary of the chief executive of the large corporation is not a market award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself.
John Galbraith

Change is inevitable, but it is in us to control its content and directions.
Indira Gandhi

It is possible for a business venture to be an island of efficiency in a sea of sloth.
Indira Gandhi

Opportunities are not offered; they must be wrested and worked for. And this calls for perseverance and tenacity, determination and courage.
Indira Gandhi

An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi

It is difficult but not impossible to conduct strictly honest business. What is true is that honesty is incompatible with the amassing of a large fortune.
Mahatma Gandhi

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Mahatma Gandhi

Seven social sins: politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice.
Mahatma Gandhi

What is a man if he is not a thief who openly charges as much as he can for the goods he sells.
Mahatma Gandhi

You should be the change that you want to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi

Four spectres haunt the Poor - Old Age, Accident, Sickness and Unemployment. We are going to exorcise them. We are going to drive hunger from the hearth. We mean to banish the workhouse from the horizon of every workman in the land.
David Lloyd George

I often think it's comical
How Nature always does contrive
That every boy and every gal
That's born into the world alive
Is either a little Liberal
Or else a little Conservative!

W. S. Gilbert

My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.
Statement dictated to granddaughter Clara Spera, September, 2020.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg

[The] city of New York and the United States of America is much stronger than any group of barbaric terrorists, that our democracy, that our rule of law, that our strength and our willingness to defend ourselves will ultimately prevail.
Rudy Giuliani

You can't fight against the future. Time is on our side.
William Gladstone

Has anyone ever noticed that we live in the only country in the world where all the poor people are fat?
Phil Gramm

We have sort of become a nation of whiners.
The Washington Times on July 10, 2008.
Phil Gramm

bar
- H -
Globalization is an opportunity. Well managed, it will help drive forward efforts to build prosperity and eliminate poverty. Badly managed it will increase the divide between rich and poor.
Peter Hain

The Prime Minister's advice to Her Majesty was unlawful, void and of no effect.
Judgment in case of R (Miller) v. The Prime Minister, September 24, 2019.
Brenda Hale

If you want to push something ... you're accused of being aggressive, and that's not supposed to be a good thing for a woman. If you get upset and show it, you're accused of being emotional.
Mary Harney

We did it, Joe. You're going to be the next president of the United States.
In a phone call with Joe Biden, U.S. president-elect, after their victory in the 2022 presidential election was projected on November 7, 2022.
Kamala Harris

Three things happen when you get to my age. First your memory starts to go ... and I have forgotten the other two.
Denis Healey

I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
Patrick Henry

Governments have been ceding power to big multinational corporations in the market. We see the manifest in a variety of ways. Where governments are giving up power to big international institutions like the World Trade Organization or NAFTA, which are disabling governments' ability to protect the rights of their own people.
Noreena Hertz

The market has no morality.
Michael Heseltine

Others appear frozen in the headlights - aware of the likely impact, yet paralysed by the fear of major transformations.
Patricia Hewitt

There's no such thing as interacting in society without it being a political act, the most fearsome of which is war. But all other acts are political, too. Even if you say, I don't believe in politics, you've just acted. You've acted for the status quo.
Abbie Hoffman

In the not too distant future the notion of the annual pay increase must become as exceptional as it was novel a generation ago.
Geoffrey Howe

Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the ease with which the many are governed by the few.
David Hume

At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.
Aldous Huxley

bar
- I -
Democracy teaches hard lessons.
Michael Ignatieff

Few rich men own their own property. The property owns them.
Robert G. Ingersoll

bar
- J -
There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.
Andrew Jackson

We've got to stop being the stupid party. It's time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults.
Republican National Committee on January 24, 2013.
Bobby Jindal

I just find it absolutely bizarre that we are being lectured by the Americans about giving up our sovereignty and giving up control when the Americans won't even sign up to the international convention on the law of the seas, let alone the International Criminal Court.
Boris Johnson

I would rather be dead in a ditch than ask the European Union for a delay in Brexit.
Remarks made at a police training center in Wakefield, England, September 5, 2019.
Boris Johnson

We have a great new Brexit deal that takes back control.
Announcing a revised agreement with the European Union on October 17, 2022.
Boris Johnson

If we are to be more prosperous we need more millionaires and more bankrupts.
Keith Joseph

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- K -
Officials are highly educated but one-sided; in his own department an official can grasp whole trains of thought from a single word, but let him have something from another department explained to him ... he won't understand a word of it.
Franz Kafka

Too often our Washington reflex is to discover a problem and then throw money at it, hoping it will somehow go away.
Kenneth Keating

Leadership is not about being nice. It's about being right and being strong.
Paul Keating

Under the hypnosis of war hysteria, with a pusillanimous Congress rubber-stamping every whim of the White House, we passed the withholding tax.
Vivien Kellems

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.
John F. Kennedy

Civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.
John F. Kennedy

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
John F. Kennedy

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Robert F. Kennedy

Poetry is the ultimate democracy.
Brendan Kennelly

I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.
On voting for a war appropriations bill for Iraq and Afghanistan.
John Kerry

You can only govern men by serving them. The rule is without exception.
Victor Kiam

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King Jr.

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.
Henry Kissinger

I have been accused of allegedly giving up my free-market principles in supporting some of Donald Trump's proposed policies.
Larry Kudlow

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- L -
Media people should have long noses like an elephant to smell out politicians, mayors, prime ministers and businessmen. We need to know the reality, the good and the bad, not just the appearance.
Dalai Lama

What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong.
William Lamb

I've always favoured proposition over opposition.
Jack Layton

I wish the press were paying more attention to the erosion of the Constitution and the slippery slope that we're getting into, by giving up the right of the Congress to talk about when and how and where we go to war.
Barbara Lee

I once said cynically of a politician, He'll double-cross that bridge when he comes to it.
Oscar Levant

If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
Abraham Lincoln

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. He who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or decisions possible or impossible to execute.
Abraham Lincoln

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
Abraham Lincoln

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.
Walter Lippmann

The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.
Walter Lippmann

He was the consummate politician. He didn't lie, neither did he tell the truth.
John Lundberg

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Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less.
John Major

I would have been a success in anything. But I have chosen an activity that was socially useful and that aspect gives me extra satisfaction.
Robert Maxwell

Ordinary people may not understand the meaning of democracy but they've a passionate regard for fair play.
Robert Maxwell

The time has now definitely come when every intelligent individual must learn to think globally, beyond the horizon of a narrow nationalist point of view.
Robert Maxwell

The fundamentals of America's economy are strong.
Bloomberg TV on April 17, 2008.
John McCain

I dress like a Republican so I can talk like an Anarchist.
Colman McCarthy

I will never lie to you. You have my word on that.
At her first press briefing, May 1, 2020.
Kayleigh McEnany

The science should not stand in the way of this.
Referring to school reopenings in a news briefing, July 16, 2020.
Kayleigh McEnany

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do.
Golda Meir

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
H. L. Mencken

Journalism is to politician as dog is to lamppost.
H. L. Mencken

If the parties will at my hands call for justice, then, all were it my father stood on the one side, and the devil on the other, his cause being good, the devil should have right.
Thomas More

Simplicity of character is no hindrance to subtlety of intellect.
John Morley

The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There's far less competition.
Dwight Morrow

If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.
Remarks made at the Department of Justice, May 29, 2019.
Robert Mueller

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And one thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked.
Janet Napolitano

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.
Anaïs Nin

The press is the enemy.
Richard Nixon

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I'm not a witch.
Opening line to a 30-second television political advertisement.
Christine O'Donnell

You're telling me that the separation of church and state is found in the First Amendment?
Delaware senatorial debate on October 19, 2010.
Christine O'Donnell

Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.
P. J. O'Rourke

A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, Huh. It works. It makes sense.
Barack Obama

Al Qaeda is still a threat. We cannot pretend somehow that because Barack Hussein Obama got elected as president, suddenly everything is going to be OK.
Barack Obama

America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.
Barack Obama

Americans... still believe in an America where anything's possible - they just don't think their leaders do.
Barack Obama

As a nuclear power - as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon - the United States has a moral responsibility to act.
Barack Obama

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Barack Obama

Community colleges play an important role in helping people transition between careers by providing the retooling they need to take on a new career.
Barack Obama

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
Barack Obama

I can make a firm pledge, under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.
Barack Obama

I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.
Barack Obama

I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.
Barack Obama

I don't care whether you're driving a hybrid or an SUV. If you're headed for a cliff, you have to change direction. That's what the American people called for in November, and that's what we intend to deliver.
Barack Obama

I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.
Barack Obama

I don't take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House.
Barack Obama

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

I inhaled, that was the point.
Barack Obama

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
Barack Obama

I opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying.
Barack Obama

I think it is important for Europe to understand that even though I am president and George Bush is not president, Al Qaeda is still a threat.
Barack Obama

I think when you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody.
Barack Obama

I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.
Barack Obama

I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.
Barack Obama

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.
Barack Obama

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business - you didn't build that.
Campaign appearance in Roanoke, Virginia on July 13, 2012.
Barack Obama

If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.
Barack Obama

In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world.
Barack Obama

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?
Barack Obama

Issues are never simple. One thing I'm proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.
Barack Obama

It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.
Barack Obama

It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Barack Obama

It's time to fundamentally change the way that we do business in Washington. To help build a new foundation for the 21st-century, we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative. That will demand new thinking and a new sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent.
Barack Obama

John Kerry believes in an America where hard work is rewarded.
Barack Obama

Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference.
Barack Obama

My administration is the only thing between you [CEO's] and the pitchforks.
Barack Obama

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.
Barack Obama

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.
Barack Obama

No one is pro-abortion.
Barack Obama

One of the great strengths of the United States is... we have a very large Christian population - we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.
Barack Obama

Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism have reduced the pace of military transformation and have revealed our lack of preparation for defensive and stability operations. This Administration has overextended our military.
Barack Obama

Over the last 15 months, we've traveled to every corner of the United States. I've now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.
Barack Obama

People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.
Barack Obama

Please proceed, Governor.
Second presidential debate in Hempstead, New York on October 16, 2012.
Barack Obama

Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow.
Barack Obama

The Bush Administration's failure to be consistently involved in helping Israel achieve peace with the Palestinians has been both wrong for our friendship with Israel, as well as badly damaging to our standing in the Arab world.
Barack Obama

The Cambridge police acted stupidly.
News conference on July 22, 2009.
Barack Obama

The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me and completely baffling to my wife.
Barack Obama

The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, unsustainable for our democracy, and unacceptable for our children, and we cannot afford to let it continue.
Barack Obama

The thing about hip-hop today is it's smart, it's insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.
Barack Obama

The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim-majority country - I know, because I am one of them.
Barack Obama

The United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam.
Barack Obama

There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
Barack Obama

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.
Barack Obama

There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America.
Barack Obama

This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many.
Barack Obama

This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
Barack Obama

Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.
Barack Obama

Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation - not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago.
Barack Obama

We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That's not leadership. That's not going to happen.
Barack Obama

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.
Barack Obama

We have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our students and our schools. We must make sure that people who have the grades, the desire and the will, but not the money, can still get the best education possible.
Barack Obama

We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated.
Barack Obama

We need earmark reform, and when I'm President, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.
Barack Obama

We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old - and that's the criterion by which I'll be selecting my judges.
Barack Obama

We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.
Barack Obama

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don't want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.
Barack Obama

We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.
Barack Obama

We're not going to baby sit a civil war.
Barack Obama

What do you think a stimulus is? It's spending - that's the whole point! Seriously.
Barack Obama

What Washington needs is adult supervision.
Barack Obama

When we think of the major threats to our national security, the first to come to mind are nuclear proliferation, rogue states and global terrorism. But another kind of threat lurks beyond our shores, one from nature, not humans - an avian flu pandemic.
Barack Obama

Where the stakes are the highest, in the war on terror, we cannot possibly succeed without extraordinary international cooperation. Effective international police actions require the highest degree of intelligence sharing, planning and collaborative enforcement.
Barack Obama

Why can't I just eat my waffle?
Barack Obama

With the changing economy, no one has lifetime employment. But community colleges provide lifetime employability.
Barack Obama

You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.
Barack Obama

You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.
Third presidential debate in Boca Raton, Florida on October 22, 2012.
Barack Obama

You will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime.
Barack Obama

We are the 99 percent.
Occupy Wall Street slogan.
Occupy

There is one category of advertising which is totally uncontrolled and flagrantly dishonest: the television commercials for candidates in Presidential elections.
David Ogilvy

Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
George Orwell

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Don't retreat! Reload!
Palin's Facebook and Twitter.
Sarah Palin

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's death panel.
Palin's Facebook on August 7, 2009.
Sarah Palin

The difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.
Sarah Palin

I don't pretend that I had not moments of trial and of temptation, but I do claim that never in thought, word, or deed, have I been false to the trust which Irishmen have confided in me.
Charles Stewart Parnell

No man shall have the right to fix the boundary to the march of a Nation.
Charles Stewart Parnell

I am ready to debate how we fight terrorism without giving up our liberty.
Rand Paul

We have to pass the (health care) bill so you can find out what is in it.
National Association of Counties on March 9, 2010.
Nancy Pelosi

Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.
William Penn

They have a right to censure that have a heart to help.
William Penn

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
Shimon Peres

For the whole Earth is the Sepulchre of famous men; and their story is not graven only on Stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives.
Pericles

I come from an environment where, if you see a snake, you kill it. At General Motors, if you see a snake, the first thing you do is hire a consultant on snakes.
Ross Perot

The debt is like a crazy aunt we keep down in the basement. All the neighbors know she's there, but nobody wants to talk about her.
Ross Perot

Coffee, (which makes the politician wise, and see thro' all things with his half-shut eyes).
Alexander Pope

Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up.
Colin Powell

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
Colin Powell

For a politician to complain about the press is like a ship's captain complaining about the sea.
Enoch Powell

Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.
President's Daily Brief

I doubt if there is any occupation which is more consistently and unfairly demeaned, degraded, denounced, and deplored than banking.
William Proxmire

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I am interested in politics so that one day I will not have to be interested in politics.
Ayn Rand

I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
Ronald Reagan

Nations do not mistrust each other because they are armed; they are armed because they mistrust each other.
Ronald Reagan

Wages should be left to the fair and free competition of the market, and should never be controlled by the interference of the legislature.
David Ricardo

We should never be allowed to forget that it is the customer who, in the end, determines how many people are employed and what sort of wages companies can afford to pay.
Alfred Robens

Every time I get an opponent - I mean, every time I get a chance - I'm home.
Responding to questioning about whether he actually resides in Kansas, KCMO radio interview, July 3, 2014.
Pat Roberts

I don't make jokes; I just watch the government and report the facts.
Will Rogers

The invisible hand of the market always moves faster and better than the heavy hand of government.
Mitt Romney

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what ... who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims. ... These are people who pay no income tax. ... and so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.
Private fundraiser in Boca Raton, Florida on May 17, 2012.
Mitt Romney

We took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet [in Massachusetts]. I went to a number of women's groups and said, Can you help us find folks? and they brought us whole binders full of women.
Second presidential debate in Hempstead, New York on October 16, 2012.
Mitt Romney

We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

The 1 to 2 billion poorest in the world, who don't have food for the day, suffer from the worst disease: globalization deficiency. The way globalization is occurring could be much better, but the worst thing is not being part of it. For those people, we need to support good civil societies and governments.
Hans Rosling

Extremists think 'communication' means agreeing with them.
Leo Rosten

If we take the term in the strict sense, there never has been a real democracy, and there never will be. It is against the natural order for the many to govern and the few to be governed.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I have made mistakes, but in all I did my object was the public good.
John Russell

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The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.
Bernie Sanders to Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential debate, Las Vegas, October 13, 2015.
Bernie Sanders

The cost of college education today is so high that many young people are giving up their dream of going to college, while many others are graduating deeply in debt.
Bernie Sanders

Malice is of a low stature, but it hath very long arms.
George Savile

Crying is almost a ritual that male politicians must do to prove they are compassionate, but women are supposed to wear iron britches.
Pat Schroeder

Giving up even an ounce of precious freedom is a very serious thing to do.
Chuck Schumer

American people ... will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: Our country - when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.
Carl Schurz

The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through politics.
Albert Schweitzer

He who receives a benefit with gratitude repays the first installment on his debt.
Seneca

Lack of confidence is not the result of difficulty; the difficulty comes from lack of confidence.
Seneca

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.
Seneca

He knows nothing and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
George Bernard Shaw

I have a message for you. You are not welcome here. You have blood on your hands.
To President George W. Bush, in Crawford, Texas.
Cindy Sheehan

For lots of big companies, their brand is worth so much to them that they can't endanger their reputation for being a quality company without really endangering their business performance.
Clare Short

Financial markets ... resent any kind of government interference but they hold a belief deep down that if conditions get really tough the authorities will step in.
George Soros

Common sense (which, in truth, is very uncommon) is the best sense I know of.
Philip Stanhope

I recommend you to take care of the minutes for the hours will take care of themselves.
Philip Stanhope

Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.
Philip Stanhope

A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.
Adlai Stevenson

Bad administration, to be sure, can destroy good policy; but good administration can never save bad policy.
Adlai Stevenson

I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.
Adlai Stevenson

Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.
Adlai Stevenson

The relationship of the toastmaster to the speaker should be the same as that of the fan to the fan dancer. It should call attention to the subject without making any particular effort to cover it.
Adlai Stevenson

A diplomat ... is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.
Caskie Stinnett

The only people who never make mistakes are those who have never taken a decision.
Jack Straw

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I am a sportsman and not a politician. I am a sportsman and will always remain one. I am not going to enter politics giving up cricket, which is my life. I will continue to play cricket.
Sachin Tendulkar

I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.
Margaret Thatcher

I don't mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.
Margaret Thatcher

In politics if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.
Margaret Thatcher

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions. He had money as well.
Margaret Thatcher

Pennies don't fall from heaven. They have to be earned on earth.
Margaret Thatcher

We shall not be diverted from our course. To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catch-phrase, the U-turn, I have only this to say. You turn if you want; the lady's not for turning.
Margaret Thatcher

We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
Speech at United Nations Climate Action Summit, New York, September 23, 2019.
Greta Thunberg

The depths and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.
Leon Trotsky

Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.
Harry S. Truman

He's not a war hero. ... He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured.
Criticizing John McCain, interview at Family Leadership Summit, Ames, Iowa, July 18, 2015.
Donald Trump

I alone can fix it.
Speech at Republican National Convention, Cleveland, July 21, 2016.
Donald Trump

[I am] not smart, but genius ... and a very stable genius at that!
In a tweet, January 6, 2018.
Donald Trump

I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters.
Speech at campaign rally, Sioux Center, Iowa, January 23, 2016.
Donald Trump

I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off.
As reported by The New York Times, explaining the firing of James Comey to visiting Russian officials, May 10, 2017.
Donald Trump

I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning?
Remarks at a White House Coronavirus Task Force news briefing, April 23, 2020.
Donald Trump

I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky to do the right thing.
In a phone call with Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, on September 9, 2022.
Donald Trump

I wasn't satisfied just to earn a good living. I was looking to make a statement.
Donald Trump

I would like you to do us a favor, though.
Memorandum of telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy, July 25, 2019.
Donald Trump

If you don't have passion ... you might as well give up ... you have no chance of making it. Passion is the essence of life, and certainly the essence of success.
Donald Trump

If you're going to be thinking only one thing, you might as well be thinking big.
Donald Trump

In the end, you're measured not by how much you undertake but by what you finally accomplish.
Donald Trump

Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?
On fellow Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, quoted in Rolling Stone magazine, September 24, 2015.
Donald Trump

My style of dealmaking is quite simple and straightforward. I just keep pushing and pushing to get what I'm after.
Donald Trump

One day - it's like a miracle - it will disappear.
Referring to the coronavirus in remarks at an African American History Month reception at the White House, February 27, 2020.
Donald Trump

Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make.
Donald Trump

Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
Mark Twain

In government it is order that matters; In action it is timeliness that matters.
Lao Tzu

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A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election.
William E. Vaughan

A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works.
William E. Vaughan

All of us should have free choice when it comes to patriotic displays... a government wisely acting within its bounds will earn loyalty and respect from its citizens. A government dare not demand the same.
Jesse Ventura

As governor, there isn't a lot I can do beyond that to crack down on crime. Law enforcement is really a local issue. It's the cops' job to tighten down on criminals.
Jesse Ventura

Congratulations, you have a sense of humor. And to those who didn't: Go stick your head in the mud.
Jesse Ventura

Government works less efficiently when it begins to grow out of control and takes on more and more of the responsibilities that belong to the citizens.
Jesse Ventura

Government's role should be only to keep the playing field level, and to work hand in hand with business on issues such as employment. But beyond this, to as great an extent as possible, it should get the hell out of the way.
Jesse Ventura

I also believe that government has no business telling us how we should live our lives. I think our lifestyle choices should be left up to us. What we do in our private lives is none of the government's business. That position rules out the Republican Party for me.
Jesse Ventura

I asked Dalai Lama the most important question that I think you could ask - if he had ever seen Caddyshack.
Jesse Ventura

I believe in the America people's ability to govern themselves. If government would just get out of the way and allow them to lead their lives as they choose, they will succeed.
Jesse Ventura

I believe patriotism comes from the heart. Patriotism is voluntary. It is a feeling of loyalty and allegiance that is the result of knowledge and belief.
Jesse Ventura

I decided to run for governor because I got mad... I want to make government more directly accountable to the people.
Jesse Ventura

I don't believe we need the government's help as much as some think we do. That belief sets me apart from the Democrats, since their way of dealing with everything is to tax and spend.
Jesse Ventura

I don't support abortion. I could never participate in one. But I think it would be a mistake to make them illegal again.
Jesse Ventura

I don't think I would want the responsibility for enforcing the death penalties. There's always the inevitable question of whether someone you gave the order to execute might truly have been innocent.
Jesse Ventura

I don't want to spend the rest of my life in politics. When I'm finished with my term as governor, I'm going back to the life that's waiting for me in the private sector.
Jesse Ventura

I speak my mind. If it offends some people, well, there's not much I can do about that. But I'm going to be honest. I'm going to continue to speak my mind, and that's who I am.
Jesse Ventura

I'm against the draft. I believe we should have a professional military; it might be smaller, but it would be more effective.
Jesse Ventura

If I could be reincarnated as a fabric, I would come back as a 38 double-D bra.
Jesse Ventura

If I wanna be president, I probably can.
Jesse Ventura

If you were to come to Minnesota, I could have you locked up like that. That's power.
Jesse Ventura

Industrial hemp is a very useful plant. I challenged the attorney general to get rid of the criminal stigma associated with hemp so we can look at it in terms of how it might be useful.
Jesse Ventura

Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business.
Jesse Ventura

Patriotism is voluntary. It is a feeling of loyalty and allegiance that is the result of knowledge and belief. A patriot shows their their patriotism through their actions, by their choice.
Jesse Ventura

Politics is not my life. I have a career in radio and another career in film.
Jesse Ventura

Remember that government doesn't earn one single dollar it spends. In order for you to get money from the government, that money must first be taken from somebody else.
Jesse Ventura

Students often approached me about state-paid tuition while I was out campaigning. After I explained to them that if the state pays their tuition now, they will pay higher taxes to pay other people's tuition for the rest of their lives, most of them ended up agreeing with me.
Jesse Ventura

The Constitution guarantees us our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's all. It doesn't guarantee our rights to charity.
Jesse Ventura

There are a lot of good causes out there, but they can't possibly all be served by government.
Jesse Ventura

There is much more to being a patriot and a citizen than reciting the pledge or raising a flag.
Jesse Ventura

There's no question that we need tougher drunk-driving laws for repeat offenders. We need to take a lesson from European countries where driving isn't a right but a privilege.
Jesse Ventura

We call our country home of the brave and land of the free, but it's not. We give a false portrayal of freedom. We're not free - if we were, we'd allow people their freedom.
Jesse Ventura

When the Constitution gave us the right to bear arms, it also made us responsible for using them properly. It's not fair of us as citizens to lean more heavily on one side of that equation than on the other.
Jesse Ventura

Wrestling is ballet with violence.
Jesse Ventura

You can't legislate morality.
Jesse Ventura

You give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.
CNN interview on May 11, 2009.
Jesse Ventura

The wicked can have only accomplices, the voluptuous have companions in debauchery, self-seekers have associates, the politic assemble the factions, the typical idler has connections, princes have courtiers. Only the virtuous have friends.
Voltaire

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I have a plan for that.
Remark made at She the People forum, Houston, April 24, 2019.
Elizabeth Warren

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there - good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.
Andover, Massachusetts, U.S.A. in August, 2011.
Elizabeth Warren

However many people complain about the red tape, it would be sheer illusion to think for a moment that continuous administrative work can be carried out except by means of officials working in offices ... The choice is only that between bureaucracy and dilettantism in the field of administration.
Max Weber

If we all say the same thing, then I think the government has to listen. But because no one is saying it, I become singled out, even though what I'm saying is common sense. It's very essential values that we all have to protect. But in Chinese society, people are giving up on protecting these values.
Ai Weiwei

The military don't start wars. Politicians start wars.
William Westmoreland

To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist - the problem is entirely the same in both cases. To know how much oil one must mix with one's vinegar.
Oscar Wilde

One man's wage increase is another man's price increase.
Harold Wilson

You lie!
Wilson's shouted retort to Obama's address before a joint session of Congress on September 9, 2009.
Joe Wilson

I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose!
Woodrow Wilson

Government is an unnecessary evil. Human beings, when accustomed to taking responsibility for their own behavior, can cooperate on a basis of mutual trust and helpfulness.
Fred Woodworth

I have no prefix or adjective for my anarchism. I think syndicalism can work, as can free-market anarcho-capitalism, anarcho-communism, even anarcho-hermits, depending on the situation. But I do have a strong individualist streak. Just plain anarchism-against government and authority-is what I'm for.
Fred Woodworth

If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also.
Fred Woodworth

An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.
Henry Wotton

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Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Malcolm X

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Politics is war carried out without bloodshed, while war is politics carried out with bloodshed.
Mao Zedong

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