The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787Quotes
A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.
—David Foster Wallace, 2000The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BCThe Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.
—Hannah Arendt, 1958Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.
—John Nance Garner, c. 1967On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580