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

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

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

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

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.

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

Envy is the basis of democracy.

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