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.

Every country has the government it deserves.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

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.

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

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

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.

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.

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

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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