Archive

Quotes

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

—Dean Acheson, 1970

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

—Immanuel Kant, 1784

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

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

Politics is the art of the possible.

—Otto von Bismarck, 1867

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

—Thomas Jefferson, 1787

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

—Laozi

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

—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792

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

—Robert Byrd, 2005

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850