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.

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

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

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.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

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

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

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

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

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

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

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