The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.
—John Nance Garner, c. 1967Quotes
Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811It 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. 1515He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850My 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.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
—Mao Zedong, 1938Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.
—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BCThe poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
—LaoziA government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.
—Al Smith, 1933