The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

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.

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

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.

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

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

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

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

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

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

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

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.