Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
—E.B. White, 1944Quotes
Let him who desires peace prepare for war.
—Vegetius, c. 385Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862No 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.
—Hannah Arendt, 1958A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1830I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCYou campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967