Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906Quotes
I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.
—Al Smith, 1933The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
—Tacitus, c. 117It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990What 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.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1830It 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.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887