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.

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

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

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

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

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.

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

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

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.