Archive

Quotes

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

—George Borrow, 1843

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967

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

—Judge Learned Hand, 1944

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

—H. Rap Brown, 1967

To 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 BC

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

—Charles de Gaulle, 1963

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

—Anthony Burgess, 1972

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

—H.L. Mencken, 1921

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, 1887

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

—Laozi, c. 500 BC

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

—Horace, c. 8 BC

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, 1774