Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
I have left orders to be awakened at any time during national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.
As government expands, liberty contracts.
There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.
Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
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.
I've heard that hard work never killed anyone, but I say why take the chance?
Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver 5 minutes longer.
It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.
America is too great for small dreams.
When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
The future doesn't belong to the lighthearted. It belongs to the brave.
It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.
To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he will.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
If you're explaining, you're losing.
Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal. It was Mussolini’s success in Italy, with his government-directed economy, that led the early New Dealers to say “But Mussolini keeps the trains running on time.