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

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

Envy is the basis of democracy.

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.

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

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

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

My 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.

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

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

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