The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

Every country has the government it deserves.

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

Envy is the basis of democracy.

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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.

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

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.

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.