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

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

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 shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

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.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

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

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

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

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.