In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

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.

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

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

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

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

Politics is the art of the possible.

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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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

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.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.