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Quotes

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.

—Francis Bacon, 1625

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.

—Anacharsis, c. 550 BC

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

—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

—Shimon Peres, 1995

No 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, 1215

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330

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.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

—John Maynard Keynes, 1917

Every country has the government it deserves.

—Joseph de Maistre, 1811

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

—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

—H. Rap Brown, 1967

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

—Henrik Ibsen, 1882