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

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

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

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

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

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

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

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

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.

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