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.
—Francis Bacon, 1625Quotes
The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
—LaoziWhat, 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.
—Frederick Douglass, 1855The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
—Tacitus, c. 117Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943If 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.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.
—Al Smith, 1933I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796