Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

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

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

Politics is the art of the possible.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

If 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.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.