Archive

Quotes

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

—Henrik Ibsen, 1882

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

—Robert Byrd, 2005

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

—Judge Learned Hand, 1944

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

—Anthony Trollope, 1862

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.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

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, 2001

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

—H. Rap Brown, 1967

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

—Mao Zedong, 1938

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

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

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

—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

—Vegetius, c. 385

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

—Walter Bagehot, 1863