People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

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 first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

Politics is the art of the possible.

The 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.

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

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.