Archive

Quotes

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

—Vegetius, c. 385

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

—Shimon Peres, 1995

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

—John Wilkes Booth, 1865

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.

—David Foster Wallace, 2000

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.

—Frederick the Great, c. 1770

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

—Walter Bagehot, 1863

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

—Charles de Gaulle, 1963

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

—Che Guevara, 1968

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

—Paul Valéry, 1943

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

—Henrik Ibsen, 1882

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

—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832

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

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944