O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

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

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

Every country has the government it deserves.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Politics is the art of the possible.

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

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.