So much of what passes for public life consists of little more than candidates without ideas, hiring consultants without conviction, to stage campaigns without content. The result, increasingly, is elections without voters.

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

I have always felt that the real purpose of government is to enhance the lives of people and that a leader can best do that by restraining government in most cases instead of enlarging it at every opportunity.

The Declaration [of Independence] was not a protest against government, but against the excess of government. It prescribed the proper role of government, to secure the rights of individuals and to effect their safety and happiness. In modern society, no individual can do this alone. So government is not a necessary evil but a necessary good.

I know I am getting better at golf because I am hitting fewer spectators.

We . . . declared our independence 200 years ago, and we are not about to lose it now to paper shufflers and computers.

To me, the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency were not prizes to be won, but a duty to be done.