Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.
—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832Quotes
Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.
—John Nance Garner, c. 1967My 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.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770Written 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.
—Anacharsis, c. 550 BCPolitics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BCThe tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787No 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.
—Magna Carta, 1215The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCYou campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917