The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

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

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

The 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.

A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.

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

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

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

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

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

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

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