The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races but the happiness of common man.

The life and liberty and property and happiness of the common man throughout the world are at the absolute mercy of a few persons whom he has never seen involved in complicated quarrels that he has never heard of.

Some of us learned in a school of philosophy which taught that all was for the common good and nothing for oneself and have never in any case regarded the pursuit of happiness as anything other than an aberration of the human spirit.

Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys.

Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.

Life in common among people who love each other is the ideal of happiness.

Desire is individual. Happiness is common.

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This and not much else is the essence of leadership.

Put the uncommon effort into the common task... make it large by doing it in a great way.

They that apply themselves to trifling matters commonly become incapable of great ones.

Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer.

My success was not based so much on any great intelligence but on great common sense.

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities strong men make them.

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work Stick-to-itiveness and Common sense.

Little minds are interested in the extraordinary great minds in the commonplace.

Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful it does a great deal of harm.

I have no problems with private schools. I graduated from one and so did my mother. Private schools are useful and we often use public funds to pay for their infrastructures and other common needs.

Let's just do what is right for the American people. And those of us who are involved in politics and government know that our responsibility is to the American people that we have a responsibility to find our common ground to seek it and to find it.

The honest truth is that if this government were to propose the massacre of the first-born it would still have no difficulty in getting it through the Commons.

Common sense tells us that the government's attempts to solve large problems more often create new ones. Common sense also tells us that a top-down one-size-fits-all plan will not improve the workings of a nationwide health-care system that accounts for one-sixth of our economy.

What the government has to do if it wants to govern for any length of time is it must appeal primarily to the third parties in the House of Commons to get them to support it.

The new rage is to say that the government is the cause of all our problems and if only we had no government we'd have no problems. I can tell you that contradicts evidence history and common sense.

By making bold cuts in spending and commonsense entitlement reforms we will make our government simpler smaller and smarter.

If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.