Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

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

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

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

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

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

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

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

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

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

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.