The main thing is to remain oneself, under any circumstances; that was and is our common purpose.

I wasn't a normal professor. I had worked in government. I hadn't written nine zillion books. I was a hands-on professor.

For somebody who loves foreign policy, being Secretary is the best job in the world - but it doesn't happen twice.

It's important that we invest in America - literally. The terrorists wanted to destroy our economy, and we can't let our system fall apart. We also have to invest in one another.

I am often asked if, when I was secretary, I had problems with foreign men. That is not who I had problems with, because I arrived in a very large plane that said United States of America. I had more problems with the men in our own government.

I loved what I did. I could've been secretary of state for ever.

I loved being Secretary of State, that's probably evident to everyone who watched me.

I can't go out with a Republican.

While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.

The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands.

I am a freeman, an American, a United States Senator, and a Democrat, in that order.

There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous.

It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention.

Presidents quickly realize that while a single act might destroy the world they live in, no one single decision can make life suddenly better or can turn history around for the good.

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President.

Every President wants to do right.

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

It is important that the United States remain a two-party system. I'm a fellow who likes small parties and the Republican Party can't be too small to suit me.

When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor.

I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world.

I'm the only president you've got.

A man without a vote is a man without protection.

The people of the United States are more prosperous…because their government embarked later than other governments…upon the policy of obstructing business