Competence is a narrow ideal. Competence makes the trains run on time but doesn't know where they're going.

The Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I'll say no, and they'll push, and I'll say no, and they'll push again and I'll say to them, read my lips, no new taxes.

At the front end, to stop people from illegally entering our country, not at the back end, by reimbursing states after it has failed to enforce the border. [I] would allocate additional resources to enforcing the border, so states such as Texas and California would not have the huge expenses they currently do.

The Democrats just want to ram it down my ear with a victory

Draconian limits on economic growth and on the use of the automobile should not be necessary in order to give Americans clean air at levels they are willing to pay for, but it will require significant Federal, State, and local leadership and innovative approaches from government and industry.

There is a God and He is good, and his love, while free, has a self imposed cost: We must be good to one another.

The rigidity of those pledges is something I don’t like. The circumstances change and you can’t be wedded to some formula by Grover Norquist. It’s—who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?