In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.

Reader suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I have lost every other friend on earth I shall at least have one friend left and that friend shall be down inside of me.

You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

The first mistake in public business is the going into it.

I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.

In my opinion eight years as president is enough, and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people and therefore deprive them of their arms.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control and outnumbers both of the other classes.

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

The basis of a democratic state is liberty.

Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

If men were angels no government would be necessary.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.