The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

Politics is the art of the possible.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.