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

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

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

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

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

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

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

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.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

No 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.