My 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.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

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

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

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

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.

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.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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.

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

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

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

No 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.