A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

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.

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.

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

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

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.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.