Archive

Quotes

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

—Robert Byrd, 2005

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

—Mao Zedong, 1938

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

—H. Rap Brown, 1967

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

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

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967

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

—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865

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

—Walter Bagehot, 1863

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

—John Maynard Keynes, 1917

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

—Herodotus, c. 425 BC

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

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

—E.B. White, 1944