Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943Quotes
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.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.
—Judge Learned Hand, 1944There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.
—Walter Bagehot, 1863Let him who desires peace prepare for war.
—Vegetius, c. 385People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
—Tacitus, c. 117I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.
—Horace, c. 8 BC