In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

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

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.

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.

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

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

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

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

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

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

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

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

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