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Quotes

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

—Herodotus, c. 425 BC

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

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

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

—Judge Learned Hand, 1944

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

—George H. W. Bush, 1990

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

—Mao Zedong, 1938

It 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. 1515

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

—Catherine the Great, c. 1796

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

—Henrik Ibsen, 1882

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

—E.B. White, 1944

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

—H. Rap Brown, 1967