The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
—Tacitus, c. 117Quotes
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
—LaoziEvery communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
—Mao Zedong, 1938There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.
—Walter Bagehot, 1863I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.
—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908The 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.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCTelevision has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995