Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCQuotes
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.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1787What, 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.
—Frederick Douglass, 1855O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.
—Horace, c. 8 BCWritten 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.
—Anacharsis, c. 550 BCAn appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.
—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787It 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. 1515Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792