“The state dinner is almost a formula, but you try to make it interesting. You try not to overload it with too many political types. You try to get a cross section.”

Believe in something larger than yourself … to get involved in some of the big ideas of our time.

The personal things should be left out of platforms at conventions. You can argue yourself blue in the face, and you’re not going to change each other’s minds. It’s a waste of your time and my time.

Raising George Walker was not easy.

I’m a liberal when it comes to human rights, the poor; so’s George Bush. . . . But Liberal and Conservative don’t mean much to me anymore. Does that mean we care about people and are interested and want to help? And if that makes you a Liberal, so be it.

I mean Afghanistan is a very rugged, complicated country.

I’m not saying to be happy you must be married. Nor am I saying that to be happy you need children. I’m saying that if you opt for children – be you man or woman – you have to take care of them.

. . . learning never ends, and as we enter the next century, it will be more and more important for all Americans to be lifelong learners. . . . every one of us can contribute in some way to a better-educated America.

As if we don’t have enough volence on television. After her husband accidentally hit two spectators with golf balls during a celebrity golf tournament.

Your success as a family… our success as a nation… depends not on what happens inside the White House, but on what happens inside your house.

People who worry about their hair all the time, frankly, are boring.

I do have the most marvelous husband, children, and grandchildren.

Nobody likes a child to die or losing an election.

Life has changed enormously, and I hope – I hope more people read good things.

My son, George, has been a bad, bad boy! Right, George?

One thing I can say about George… he may not be able to keep a job, but he’s not boring.

I think a lot of our problems are because people don’t listen to our children. It is not always easy. They’re not always so brilliant that you want to spend hours with them. But it is very important to listen to them.

The gold standard makes the money’s purchasing power independent of the changing, ambitions and doctrines of political parties and pressure groups. This is not a defect of the gold standard; it is its main excellence.

In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.

Al Gore seems to have found a great political ploy: Picking up whatever issue he is most vulnerable on and championing the cause. Perhaps he will start to champion perjury statutes and obstruction of justice.

As virtue is necessary in a republic, and honor in a monarchy, fear is what is required in a despotism. As for virtue, it is not at all necessary, and honor would be dangerous there.

In politics, guts is all.

No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach.

[T]he kingdom of God… is to be a political institution that shall hold sway over all the earth; to which all other governments will be subordinate and by which they will be dominated.

there are people who read my work and accuse me of being political! As far as I’m concerned that’s like accusing a dog of having a bark!