Archive

Quotes

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

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, 1887

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

—John Wilkes Booth, 1865

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

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

—Charles de Gaulle, 1963

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

—Walter Bagehot, 1863

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

—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

—George Borrow, 1843

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

—E.B. White, 1944

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

—Laozi, c. 500 BC

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

—G.K. Chesterton, 1908

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

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC