I'm gonna throw a number of presidential quotes at you that I think are quite intelligent/aware. I won't name what presidents said them though;
"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation."
"I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate."
"America is the land of the second chance - and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life."
"I think the 24-hour news cycle has helped exaggerate the differences between the parties."
"The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy."
"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."
"We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries."
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
"Plans are nothing; planning is everything."
"Man cannot live by bread alone; he must have peanut butter."
"Right reason is stronger than force."
"Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor."
"I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process."
"One of the tests of the civilization of people is the treatment of its criminals."
"It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes."
"It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word."
"A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse."
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend."
"There are no good laws but such as repeal other laws."
"The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure."
"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction."
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
"In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars."
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
"I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress."
"Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off."
"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything."
"Politics makes me sick."