Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

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.

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

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

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

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

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

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

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

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.