He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

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

A 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.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

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

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

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.

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 tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.