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

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

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

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.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

Politics is the art of the possible.

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

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

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

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.