My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

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

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

Every country has the government it deserves.

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.

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

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

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

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

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