Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

A 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.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.