You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

Envy is the basis of democracy.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

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.

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.

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

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

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

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.

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.