Mikhail Gorbachev

If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven’t done much today.

Every country should conduct its own reforms, should develop its own model, taking into account the experience of other countries, whether close neighbours or far away countries.

We could only solve our problems by cooperating with other countries. It would have been paradoxical not to cooperate. And therefore we needed to put an end to the Iron Curtain, to change the nature of international relations, to rid them of ideological confrontation, and particularly to end the arms race.

I don’t think Russia is setting this as a goal; I don’t think this should be Russia’s goal. I think even the United States doesn’t need to be a superpower. China doesn’t need to be a superpower. It’s a different world.

It seems that the most important thing about Reagan was his anti-Communism and his reputation as a hawk who saw the Soviet Union as an ‘evil empire.’

I couldn’t wait to get to the most powerful position, because I thought then I would be able to fix problems that only the leader can fix. But when I got there, I realized we needed revolutionary change.

Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.

The first [task of the Pentagon] is to preserve an international system in which what are called American interests – which primarily means business interests, can flourish.

Using these unnamed sources, if done properly, carefully and fairly, provides more accountability in government.

The problem with me is that I am fifty or one hundred years ahead of my time. My speed is very fast. Some ministers have had to drop out of my government because they could not keep up.

Why does the Air Force need expensive new bombers? Have the people we’ve been bombing over the years been complaining?

An election is a moral horror, as bad as a battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned in it.

Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.

In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.

The Affordable Care Act isn’t Barack’s legacy, it’s the country’s legacy.

Tell a thousand people to draft a letter, let them debate every phrase, and see how long it takes and what you get.

Voters decide nothing. Vote counters decide everything!

You don’t get to be a respected intellectual by uttering truisms in monosyllables.

We need a president with tremendous intelligence, smarts, cunning, strength and stamina.

If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world.

The task of the government is not only to pour honey into a cup, but sometimes to give bitter medicine.