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

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

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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

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

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.

Politics is the art of the possible.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

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

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.