The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

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

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

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.

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.

Every country has the government it deserves.

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

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

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

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

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

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.