Archive

Quotes

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

—Anthony Trollope, 1862

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.

—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

—Charles de Gaulle, 1963

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BC

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

—George H. W. Bush, 1990

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

—H. Rap Brown, 1967

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.

—Anacharsis, c. 550 BC

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

—Hannah Arendt, 1958

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

—Vegetius, c. 385

Politics is the art of the possible.

—Otto von Bismarck, 1867

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

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

—Judge Learned Hand, 1944