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

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

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

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

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

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.

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

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

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

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.