The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968Quotes
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887My 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.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCIn politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1830Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985It 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.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787