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

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.

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

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

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

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.

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

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

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.