Archive

Quotes

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

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

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

—George Borrow, 1843

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

—Herodotus, c. 425 BC

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.

—Francis Bacon, 1625

It 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. 1515

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.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, 1887

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

—Tacitus, c. 117

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

—Al Smith, 1933

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

—John Wilkes Booth, 1865

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944

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

—Che Guevara, 1968