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.

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

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

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

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

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

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

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

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

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.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

Politics is the art of the possible.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.