You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
—Henrik Ibsen, 1882Quotes
You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
—Tacitus, c. 117Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
—E.B. White, 1944Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.
—Anacharsis, c. 550 BCNo 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.
—Magna Carta, 1215Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787Let him who desires peace prepare for war.
—Vegetius, c. 385I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967