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.

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

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

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

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

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

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

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

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

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

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

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