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.

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.

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

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

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

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

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

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

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

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