You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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

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.

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.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

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

Envy is the basis of democracy.

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

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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.

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