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

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

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.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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

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

Politics is the art of the possible.

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

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.