The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

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

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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.

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

Envy is the basis of democracy.

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.