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

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

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

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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