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.

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

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

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

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

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

Every country has the government it deserves.

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

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

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

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.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

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