“The real safeguard of democracy is education.”

Against naked force the only possible defense is naked force. The aggressor makes the rules for such a war; the defenders have no alternative but matching destruction with more destruction, slaughter with greater slaughter.

All of our people all over the country-except the pure-blooded Indians-are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, including even those who came over here on the Mayflower.

The presidency is not merely an administrative office. It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership.

Do Something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t, do something else.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.

We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.

There are as many opinions as there are experts.

To some generations much is given. Of other generations, much is expected.

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.

True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

An election cannot give a country a firm sense of direction if it has two or more national parties which merely have different names but are as alike in their principles and aims as peas in the same pod.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

It is better to swallow words than to have to eat them later.

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country… By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level – I mean the wages of decent living.

We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals, we now know that it is bad economics.

Presidents are selected, not elected.

Let me put it this way: I think Republicans tend to keep the ball in play, Democrats go for broke.

I was asked for years about being a Republican, probably because most black people are Democrats. My mother heard it once and called me and said ‘Charles, Republicans are for the rich people.’ And I said, ‘Mom, I’m rich.’

As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can’t have it both ways. Socialism is a new form of slavery.

The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.

Poor people have been voting for Democrats for the last 50 years and they’re still poor.

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right.

I don’t have time to put up with the politics. Who’s a Democrat? Who’s a Republican? Who’s liberal? Who’s conservative? Man, can my daughter just go to a school and not get killed? Can these people get a good job? That’s what I’m concerned about.

Let me put it this way: I think Republicans tend to keep the ball in play, Democrats go for broke.