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

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

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

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.

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.

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

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

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

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

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

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