You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

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.

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

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

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

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

Every country has the government it deserves.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

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