“The effect of Welfarism on freedom will be felt later on – after its beneficiaries have become its victims, after dependence on government has turned into bondage and it is too late to unlock the jail.”

Politics [is] the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order.

I say that when you elect a president you want a man to manage the legitimate business of your government. The government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take it away.

It is impossible to maintain freedom and order and justice without religious and moral sanctions.

Trade unions infringe upon the property rights of company owners.

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.

Jefferson thought schools would produce free men: we prove him right by putting dropouts in jail.

I haunted streets, whorehouses, police stations, courtrooms, theater stages, jails, saloons, slums, madhouses, fires, murders, riots, banquet halls and bookshops.

And unless you think there is a serious chance you’re going to jail, don’t listen to your lawyer.

Of course it can be said of jails, too, that they try – by punishing the troublesome – to deter others. No doubt, in certain instances this deterrence actually works. But generally speaking it fails conspicuously.

I went to jail at 16 for stealing tires off Cadillacs. When I got out I said, Never again.

We black and they white. They got things and we ain’t. They do things and we can’t. It’s just like livin’ in jail.

Goddamnit, look! We live here and they live there.

I could have killed her when we first met and I’ve been out of jail by now.