I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967Quotes
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.
—Arthur Miller, 2001A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944It 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. 1515A 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, 2000I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887Let him who desires peace prepare for war.
—Vegetius, c. 385I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580