Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

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.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

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

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.