He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850Quotes
Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
—Mao Zedong, 1938The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.
—Judge Learned Hand, 1944Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCWhat, 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.
—Frederick Douglass, 1855You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
—Henrik Ibsen, 1882The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
—H.L. Mencken, 1921The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908