Envy is the basis of democracy.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

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.

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

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

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.

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

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

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

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.

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

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.