Archive

Quotes

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

—Vegetius, c. 385

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

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

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

—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, 1887

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

—Horace, c. 8 BC

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515

Politics is the art of the possible.

—Otto von Bismarck, 1867

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

—Anthony Trollope, 1862

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

—Shimon Peres, 1995

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944

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

—Paul Valéry, 1943

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.

—Francis Bacon, 1625