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

Every country has the government it deserves.

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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

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

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

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.

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

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

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.