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

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

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