Archive

Quotes

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

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

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

—Al Smith, 1933

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

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

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

—Herodotus, c. 425 BC

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

—Tacitus, c. 117

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.

—Anacharsis, c. 550 BC

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

—George H. W. Bush, 1990

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.

—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515

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.

—Arthur Miller, 2001

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

—H. Rap Brown, 1967

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

—Mario Cuomo, 1985

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

—Frederick the Great, c. 1770