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.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770Quotes
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.
—Arthur Miller, 2001The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968The 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.
—H.L. Mencken, 1921People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005Let him who desires peace prepare for war.
—Vegetius, c. 385The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCWhy 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, 1787I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967If 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