He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850Quotes
Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
—Henrik Ibsen, 1882The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
—LaoziPolitics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943What 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.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1830You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.
—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963