“Politics is pointless if it does nothing to enhance the beauty of our lives.”

Che talor cresce una beltà un bel manto.
Canto XXVIII, stanza 12 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

Page 141
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 98

Presidency (1977–1981), Inaugural Address (1977)
Context: We have already found a high degree of personal liberty, and we are now struggling to enhance equality of opportunity. Our commitment to human rights must be absolute, our laws fair, our natural beauty preserved; the powerful must not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be enhanced.

Source: The 33 Strategies of War

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Playboy interview (1996)
Context: If NASA's budgeters could be convinced that there are riches on Mars, we would explode overnight to stand on the rim of the Martian abyss. We need space for reasons we have not as yet discovered, and I don't mean Tupperware. … NASA feels it has to justify everything it does in practical terms.
And Tupperware was one of the many practical products that came out of space travel. NASA feels it has got to flimflam you to get you to spend money on space. That's B. S. We don't need that. Space travel is life-enhancing, and anything that's life-enhancing is worth doing. It makes you want to live forever.

Source: North of Beautiful