A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

Envy is the basis of democracy.

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

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

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

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

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.

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.

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.