Envy is the basis of democracy.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

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

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

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.