Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865Quotes
Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
—LaoziI am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.
—Al Smith, 1933O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.
—Horace, c. 8 BCI am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.
—Hannah Arendt, 1958Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968