What, 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, 1855Quotes
You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BCThe most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCWhy has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1787Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
—LaoziThe spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.
—Judge Learned Hand, 1944Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.
—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.
—Walter Bagehot, 1863