The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

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.

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

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

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

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

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.

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

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.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Every country has the government it deserves.

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