Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

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

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.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

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

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

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.

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

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

Envy is the basis of democracy.

Every country has the government it deserves.

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