George H. W. Bush

A new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man’s heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree.

Gulf Lesson One is the value of airpower.

Poland should be strong and prosperous and independent and play its proper role as a great nation in the heart of Europe.

I can’t ever remember sitting around and saying, ‘gosh let’s hurry up and get these debates going, that’ll win it for me.’ Nope.

I’m not trying to get myself up a notch on the ladder by shoving somebody else down on the ladder, whether it’s a candidate or the president of the United States or anybody else. I just don’t believe that’s the way one oughta campaign, I’ve never done that.

We don’t want an America that is closed to the world. What we want is a world that is open to America.

The dynamic of revolutionary events is directly determined by swift, intense, and passionate changes in the psychology of classes which have already formed themselves before the revolution.

This war is not as in the past: whoever occupies a territory also imposes his own social system.

A very small proportion of declassified documents have anything to do with security, no matter how broadly you interpret it. They primarily have to do with ensuring that the major enemy, namely, the domestic population, does not find out what power systems are doing.

Kim Jong-un is 27 years old. His father dies, took over a regime. So say what you want but that is not easy, especially at that age.

If people don’t like Marxism, they should blame the British Museum.

You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt.

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

Not only were [the British] able to break into China for the first time, but also the profits from opium supported the Raj, the costs of the British Navy, and provided very significant capital which fueled the industrial revolution in England.

See that the President, the Cabinet and staff are informed. If cut out of the information flow, their decisions may be poor, not made, or not confidently or persuasively implemented.

I’m going to be so much better a president for having been at the CIA that you’re not going to believe it.

Stop talking about how you care about people. Show me something. Show me a policy. Show me a policy where you take responsibility.

[on Trump] It is not our business to asses his worthiness, but he is the absolute leader of the presidential race.

Within the reigning social order, the general public must remain an object of manipulation, not a participant in thought, debate, and decision.

Education is a system of imposed ignorance.

Presidential leadership needn’t always cost money. Look for low- and no-cost options. They can be surprisingly effective.