Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

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

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

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

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

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

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

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

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.