The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCQuotes
To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.
—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BCDemocracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
—E.B. White, 1944The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
—H.L. Mencken, 1921A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.
—David Foster Wallace, 2000The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCYou have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC