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.

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

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.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

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

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.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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.

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

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.

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

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

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.