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

The only way to save Social Security is to raise the retirement age.

And when the time is right, I hope that African Americans will again look to the party of emancipation, civil liberty, and individual freedom.

No president has the right to say he is judge, jury and executioner.

The state doesn’t own your children. Parents own the children.

In a free society we will tolerate boorish people, who have abhorrent behavior, but if we’re civilized people we publicly criticize that and don’t belong to those groups or associate with those people.

If our freedom is taken, the American dream will wither and die.

The U.S. should never get involved where we have no clear national interest. We should not intervene militarily in a country like Syria, where we can’t separate friend from foe and might end up arming the very people who hate us the most.

The Republican Party is an empty vessel unless we imbue it with values.

If you think you have the right to health care, you are saying basically that I am your slave. I provide health care… My staff and technicians provide it… If you have a right to health care, then you have a right to their labor.

I don’t want to live in a nanny state where people are telling me where I can go and what I can do.

Every child in every neighborhood, of every color, class and background, deserves a school that will help them succeed.

We all either work for rich people or we sell stuff to rich people, so just punishing rich people is as bad for the economy as punishing anyone. Let’s not punish anyone.

The Republican promise is for policies that create economic growth. Republicans believe lower taxes, less regulation, balanced budgets, a solvent Social Security and Medicare will stimulate economic growth.

I think we need to treat everybody with dignity.

There is nothing conservative about bailing out Wall Street. Likewise, there is nothing progressive about billion dollar loans to millionaires to build solar panels.

I will not vote to send my sons, or your sons, daughters, brothers, sisters or friends to fight for a stalemate.

I find it odd that suddenly people believe the United States is this Islamophobic country. I think this is the most tolerant country in the world.

If ever there was a time this country needed the intervention of God, it is now.

Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That’s the soul of a country.

How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape.

Reagan is doing to the country what he can no longer do to his wife.

Even though I’m a pop singer, I really have more the life of a country singer.

No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order.

I love New York. It’s hard to explain, but it’s the energy of the city. It’s not like L.A. where everything is spread out.