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.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515Quotes
The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.
—Horace, c. 8 BCEvery communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
—Mao Zedong, 1938I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970My 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. 1770No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
—Magna Carta, 1215He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967