Archive

Quotes

Every country has the government it deserves.

—Joseph de Maistre, 1811

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

—Shimon Peres, 1995

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

—Catherine the Great, c. 1796

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

—G.K. Chesterton, 1908

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

—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1830

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

—Dean Acheson, 1970

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

—Al Smith, 1933

Politics is the art of the possible.

—Otto von Bismarck, 1867

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

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.

—Frederick the Great, c. 1770

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967