Envy is the basis of democracy.

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

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

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

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

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

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

Politics is the art of the possible.

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

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.