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Quotes

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

—Herodotus, c. 425 BC

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

—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BC

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

—Charles de Gaulle, 1963

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

—Mao Zedong, 1938

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

—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865

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

—Paul Valéry, 1943

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

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

—Laozi, c. 500 BC

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

—John Wilkes Booth, 1865

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

—Vegetius, c. 385

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1830

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

—John Maynard Keynes, 1917

Every country has the government it deserves.

—Joseph de Maistre, 1811