It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

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

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

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.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

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

Politics is the art of the possible.

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

Envy is the basis of democracy.

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

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