Archive

Quotes

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

—Walter Bagehot, 1863

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

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967

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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, 1887

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

—Al Smith, 1933

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

—John Maynard Keynes, 1917

Every country has the government it deserves.

—Joseph de Maistre, 1811

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

—George Borrow, 1843

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

—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792

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

—Laozi

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

—Shimon Peres, 1995

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

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944

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.

—Anacharsis, c. 550 BC