Archive

Quotes

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

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967

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, 1625

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

—Dean Acheson, 1970

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

—John Wilkes Booth, 1865

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

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

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

—Walter Bagehot, 1863

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

—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850

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

—Mao Zedong, 1938

Politics is the art of the possible.

—Otto von Bismarck, 1867

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

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

—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

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.

—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515