“Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.”

If history teaches anything, it teaches that self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don’t have that problem.

There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder.

Please tell me you’re Republicans.

Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

The future doesn’t belong to the light-hearted. It belongs to the brave.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

I’ve always believed that a lot of the trouble in the world would disappear if we were talking to each other instead of about each other.

Facts are stupid things.

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

They say hard work never hurt anybody, but I figure why take the chance.

If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

There are no easy answers’ but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.

See, if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That’s literally true.

Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.

Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touched,- criticism of writers by readers, of government by those governed, of leaders by those led, – this is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society

Allah guards the justice loving government, even if it is the government of non-Muslims, and destroys the tyrant government, even if it is the government of Muslims.

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.

Afghanistan has always been sort of a fractured nation, very tribal, where the countryside and the distant provinces have been run by custom, by tribal law and by tribal leaders rather than edicts from the central government in Kabul.

Governments never learn. Only people learn.