To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public.

All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.

Control over the production and distribution of oil is the decisive factor in defining who rules whom in the Middle East.

No state on earth can afford to allow several authorities to co-exist next to one another.

I can certainly put myself in Israel's shoes. They are humans just like we are. They want peace and security inside their borders.

There is a requirement to ensure the withdrawal takes place in a civilized manner. We will be able to show the world we deserve independence and freedom.

We always have hoped that American diplomacy deploys itself in dialogue and persuasion rather than by ultimatums. That is the path we want in international relations.

We cannot build a viable state with a country that is disintegrating into small pieces.

We have accepted the principle of democracy and we are committed to respect the popular verdict and the result of that national consultation.

We expect President Bush to implement his own vision of a two-state solution, the birth of the Palestinian State and the ending of the occupation that started in 1967.

We have one authority and one law and everyone has the responsibility to follow that law and that authority.

We want the Israelis to leave. They want to leave - so let us let them leave.

We cannot build foundations of a state without rule of law.

In the aftermath of September 11, and as the 9/11 Commission report so aptly demonstrates, it is clear that our intelligence system is not working the way that it should.

You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion.

A lot of presidential memoirs, they say, are dull and self-serving. I hope mine is interesting and self-serving.

From politics, it was an easy step to silence.

I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.

America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.

One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves.

By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is force.

Had I been chosen president again, I am certain I could not have lived another year.

Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish with my country was my unalterable determination.

In a state where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous.

The more corrupt the state, the more laws.

Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.

Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.

We’ve come to be consumed by a 24-hour, slash-and-burn, negative ad, bickering, small-minded politics that doesn’t move us forward.

Race is still a powerful force in this country. Any African American candidate, or any Latino candidate, or Asian candidate or woman candidate confronts a higher threshold in establishing himself to the voters

Our enemies are fully aware that they can use oil as a weapon against America . And if we don't take this threat as seriously as the bombs they build or the guns they buy, we will be fighting the War on Terror with one hand tied behind our back.

Politics has become so bitter and partisan, so gummed up by money and influence, that we can't tackle the big problems that demand solutions. And that's what we have to change first. We have to change our politics, and come together around our common interests and concerns as Americans.

We can't change the way Washington works unless we first change how Congress works.

A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, "Huh. It works. It makes sense.

The country is not as polarized as our politics would suggest.

In the end, no amount of American forces can solve the political differences that lie at the heart of somebody else's civil war.

People are very hungry for something new. I think they are interested in being called to be a part of something larger than the sort of small, petty, slash-and-burn politics that we have been seeing over the last several years.

We've gotta restore the American people's confidence in the ethics process by ensuring that political self-interest can no longer prevent politicians from enforcing ethics rules.

We will have a world government whether you like it or not. The only question is whether that government will be achieved by conquest or consent.

What has happened at Guantanamo Bay... does not represent the will of the American people. I'm embarrassed about it, I think its wrong. I think it does give terrorists an unwarranted excuse to use the despicable means to hurt innocent people.

Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

Politics is the conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.

The concept of war crimes is an American invention.