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

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

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

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

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.

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

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

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

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.

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

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

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

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