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

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.

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

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

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

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

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 most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

It 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.

Every country has the government it deserves.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.