The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.

I respect very much the role of the media in our society; I think they can be very, very helpful. They serve as a very useful check, sort of a watchdog over the actions of the government, and I respect that.

There are, for example, exemptions in FOIA in which the government can withhold certain kinds of information, and the courts have recognized that there is certain documentation that do deserve protection, that certain privileges do apply and do deserve protection.

If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government.

The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.

The problem with the United Nations is that while democracy within nations is the best available form of government, democracy among nations can be a moral disaster - especially if some nations are not democracies.

No, if there is an aspect of the executive branch of the government that needs looking at, I'm liable to be called in to look at it. But I'm not the only one.

Anyone who thinks you can pay $3,100 to the federal government and thinks you can get that money back completely in services - like I said - he may go to M-I-T but he is an N-U-T.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

Which government is the best? The one that teaches us to govern ourselves.

Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.

Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands, and perpetuate its institutions.

Above all we should not forget that government is an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgement and individual conscience of mankind.

I don't think we can go back to the old days. But I think that what the government needs to do is it needs to make sure that the pricing is fair, that you don't have monopolies out there, so that people don't have a chance to compete fairly.

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.