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.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770Quotes
There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.
—Walter Bagehot, 1863The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.
—Judge Learned Hand, 1944I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.
—Horace, c. 8 BCI am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCA government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
—LaoziIt 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, 1625A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967