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

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

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

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.

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

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.

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

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

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

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.