The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

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

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

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

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

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.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

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.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

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.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

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