My 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.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

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

Every country has the government it deserves.

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

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

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.

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

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

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.

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

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.