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

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

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

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.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

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

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.