There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

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

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

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.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

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

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

What, 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.

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