The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

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

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

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

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

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

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

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.

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

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

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.