What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

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 U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

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.

Politics is the art of the possible.

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

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

My 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.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.