Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

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

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

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

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

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

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

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

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

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

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

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

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.