There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

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

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

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

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

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

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

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

Envy is the basis of democracy.