The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
—Tacitus, c. 117Quotes
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, 2000You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
—Henrik Ibsen, 1882There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.
—Walter Bagehot, 1863I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967To 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 BCThe Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968