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

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

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

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

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.

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.

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

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

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

Politics is the art of the possible.