Archive

Quotes

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.

—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515

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, 1787

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

—Dean Acheson, 1970

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.

—David Foster Wallace, 2000

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

—John Maynard Keynes, 1917

Every country has the government it deserves.

—Joseph de Maistre, 1811

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.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

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

—Horace, c. 8 BC

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

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

—Laozi

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

—Che Guevara, 1968

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

—Anacharsis, c. 550 BC

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

—Immanuel Kant, 1784