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Quotes

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

—Thomas Jefferson, 1787

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

—Paul Valéry, 1943

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

—Vegetius, c. 385

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.

—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1830

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

—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

—Catherine the Great, c. 1796

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

—John Maynard Keynes, 1917

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

—Shimon Peres, 1995

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

—Immanuel Kant, 1784

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

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

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

—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850

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

—Dean Acheson, 1970