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

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

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

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

Politics is the art of the possible.

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

No 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.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

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