The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
—Tacitus, c. 117Quotes
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCEvery country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
—E.B. White, 1944People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796