You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

Politics is the art of the possible.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

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.

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

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.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!