The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787Quotes
Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930My 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. 1770Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCIt 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, 1625The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1830Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995It 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.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.
—Horace, c. 8 BCA 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