My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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

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.

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.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

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

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

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.

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

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

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

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