“Let me be clear: I support the Civil Rights Act because I overwhelmingly agree with the intent of the legislation, which was to stop discrimination in the public sphere and halt the abhorrent practice of segregation and Jim Crow laws.”

The great and abiding lesson of American history, particularly the Cold War, is that the engine of capitalism – the individual – is mightier than any collective.

Let’s means-test benefits – let’s means-test Social Security and Medicare and make the rich pay more for these benefits.

Unless you really stand for something, people aren’t motivated to go out and vote for you.

Cut defense spending as part of cutting all federal spending.

I think women have come a long way. Women are in positions not because they’re women, they’re in positions because they’re intelligent and they should be equal to their counterparts and treated equally.

I am running for president to return our country to the principles of liberty and limited government.

I do believe people ought to be left alone. I don’t care who you are or what you do at home or who your friends are or where you hang out, what kind of music you listen to, what you do in your home is your own business. That’s always been who I am. I am a leave me alone kind of guy.

I’m not someone who’s sort of still trying to figure out what I believe in.

If I have a weakness, it’s that I try to live by the rules. I try to live by the rules, no matter what they are, and I was brought up that way as a kid. Play by the rules.

How much liberty do with want to give up for a false sense of security?

I read all of Ayn Rand’s novels when I was 17.

You can be strong without being involved in every single civil war around the world.

We should be proud that so many want to come to America, that it is still seen as the land of opportunity. Let’s make it a land of legal work, not black-market jobs. Let’s make it a land of work, not welfare. Our land should be one of assimilation, not hiding in the shadows.

I would introduce and support legislation to send Roe v. Wade back to the states.

I say the phone records of law abiding citizens are none of their damn business!

We have to think before we act.