There are no institutions – only the people rule this country.

The way to make peace is not through governments. It is through people.

A nation is not a complex of wheels, nor a wild horse race, but a stride upward concerted by real men.

First of all, thank you. You represent 1 percent of the American people. None of you have to be here. You all decided to be here for your country. Every one of you volunteered. Every single one of you stepped up. And the rest of the 99 percent of the rest of the country, including me, owes you and owes you big, number one. Number two, you know, we’re a unique country in many ways. And we’re the only country — the only country in the world not based — organized based on geography or ethnicity or religion or race or anything else; we’re based on an idea. Literally the only country in the world based on an idea that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all women and men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Sounds corny, but it’s the truth of who we are. We’ve never lived up to it, but we never walked away from it. And the rest of the world looks to us. Because, you know, we not only lead by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. And your generation combines both.

it is the people who control the Government, not the Government the
people.

Beyond these, I am drawn to the richness of this great country. Richness not summed in any currency, but in the people.

What defines a people is not race, not tradition, not geography, but the free choice of a group of human beings to live together as fellow citizens.

As far as we are concerned, we are not the toys of any country, including the United States.

We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around.

I love my country, not my government.

You're not corporate," she said definitely. "Corporates don't do this stuff. Not like this."
"The corporates do whatever turns a profit. Don't let your prejudices blind you. Sure, they'll burn down entire villages if it pays. But if having a human face is what cuts it, they'll whip out a human face and put it on.

A nation is not (like the ground on which it is located) a possession. It is a society of men whom no one other than the nation itself can command or dispose of.

What has made this nation great? Not its heroes, but its households.

Society doesn't have values. People have values.