Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

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

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.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

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

It 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.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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

Every country has the government it deserves.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.