A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.
—David Foster Wallace, 2000Quotes
Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930The 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, 1774In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1830O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.
—Horace, c. 8 BCThe Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967My 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. 1770I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963No 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.
—Hannah Arendt, 1958Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865