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.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1787Quotes
The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.
—John Nance Garner, c. 1967If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.
—Walter Bagehot, 1863I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
—E.B. White, 1944Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
—LaoziI’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930