People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005Quotes
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.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770Whether 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.
—Arthur Miller, 2001The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.
—Immanuel Kant, 1784Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867The 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.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1787To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.
—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BCI shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796