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

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

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

Every country has the government it deserves.

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

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

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

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

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

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.