“Any pilot can describe the mechanics of flying. What it can do for the spirit of man is beyond description.”

Small men, seeking great wealth or power, have too often and too long turned even the highest levels of public service into mere personal opportunity.

I could have ended the war in a month. I could have made North Vietnam look like a mud puddle.

Unlimited campaign spending eats at the heart of the democratic process.

The constitution is an instrument, above all, for LIMITING the functions of government.

We now have a president who tries to save money by turning off lights in the White House, even as he heads toward a staggering addition to the national debt. “L.B.J.” should stand for Light Bulb Johnson.

Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives.

History has to judge every man who served. I don’t know how they’re going to treat me. I may be the worst S.O.B. that ever came down the pike. But I won’t lose any sleep over it. I just like to be remembered as an honest person who tried.

The Conservative knows that to regard man as part of an undifferentiated mass is to consign him to ultimate slavery.

If you don’t mind smelling like peanut butter for two or three days, peanut butter is darn good shaving cream.

My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them.

The big thing is to make this country – quit discriminating against people just because they’re gay. You don’t have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay. They’re American citizens.

Perserverance. . .that’s been the story of my family.

Throughout history, government has proved to be the chief instrument for thwarting man’s liberty.

I’m the most underdog underdog there is.

After one of his [Hubert Humphrey] long-winded harangues I suggested he had probably been vaccinated with a phonograph needle. He responded by saying that I would have been a great success in the movies working for Eighteenth Century-Fox.

I certainly believe in aliens in space, and that they are indeed visiting our planet. They may not look like us, but I have very strong feelings that they have advanced beyond our mental capabilities.