It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.

It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.

I'm proud that I'm a politician. A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to read more

I'm proud that I'm a politician. A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.

While rationalism at the individual level is a plea for more personal autonomy from cultural norms, at the social level read more

While rationalism at the individual level is a plea for more personal autonomy from cultural norms, at the social level it is often a claim- or arrogation- of power to stifle the autonomy of others.

Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.

Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.

It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the read more

It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.

...a man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes.

...a man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes.

Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to read more

Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.

...whenever it is necessary that one of several conflicting opinions should prevail and when one would have to be made read more

...whenever it is necessary that one of several conflicting opinions should prevail and when one would have to be made to prevail by force if need be, it is less wasteful to determine which has the stronger support by counting numbers than by fighting. Democracy is the only method of peaceful change that man has yet been discovered.

The successful politician owes his power to the fact that he moves within the accepted framework of thought, that he read more

The successful politician owes his power to the fact that he moves within the accepted framework of thought, that he thinks and talks conventionally. It would be almost a contradiction in terms for a politician to be a leader in the field of ideas. His task in a democracy is to find out what the opinions held by the largest number are, not to give currency to new opinions which may become the majority view in some distant future.