Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963Quotes
Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCA government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944What, 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, 1855My 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.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.
—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.
—David Foster Wallace, 2000The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.
—Judge Learned Hand, 1944The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.
—John Nance Garner, c. 1967No 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, 1958There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887