The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787Quotes
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.
—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BCThe most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCLet him who desires peace prepare for war.
—Vegetius, c. 385You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985It 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. 1515There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862