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.

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

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

Every country has the government it deserves.

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.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

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

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

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

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.

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