Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

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

I won’t say that the papers misquote me, but I sometimes wonder where Christianity would be today if some of those reporters had been Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.

To disagree, one doesn’t have to be disagreeable.

I wouldn’t trust Nixon from here to that phone.

I certainly believe in aliens in space. They may not look like us, but I have very strong feelings that they have advanced beyond our mental capabilities… I think some highly secret government UFO investigations are going on that we don’t know about—and probably never will unless the Air Force discloses them.

I could have ended the war in a month. I could have made North Vietnam look like a mud puddle.

You’ve got to forget about this civilian. Whenever you drop bombs, you’re going to hit civilians.

Today’s so-called ‘conservatives’ don’t even know what the word means. They think I’ve turned liberal because I believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That’s a decision that’s up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right. It’s not a conservative issue at all.

Defoliation of the forests by low-yield atomic weapons could well be done.

By the time the convention opened, I had been branded as a fascist, a racist, a trigger-happy warmonger, a nuclear madman and the candidate who couldn’t win