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Quotes

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

—Immanuel Kant, 1784

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.

—David Foster Wallace, 2000

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

—Horace, c. 8 BC

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

—Laozi, c. 500 BC

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, 1887

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

—Walter Bagehot, 1863

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

—Tacitus, c. 117

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

—Al Smith, 1933

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

—Che Guevara, 1968

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

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

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

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

—John Maynard Keynes, 1917

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

—Dean Acheson, 1970