Archive

Quotes

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774

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

—Immanuel Kant, 1784

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

—Vegetius, c. 385

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

—Anthony Burgess, 1972

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.

—Anacharsis, c. 550 BC

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

—Judge Learned Hand, 1944

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

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

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

—George Borrow, 1843

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

—Hannah Arendt, 1958

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

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

—Robert Byrd, 2005

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

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967