The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774Quotes
In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1830You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843The 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, 1921Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792