Archive

Quotes

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

—Laozi, c. 500 BC

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

—Dean Acheson, 1970

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

—Shimon Peres, 1995

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

—Che Guevara, 1968

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

—Robert Byrd, 2005

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

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967

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

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

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.

—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1830

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

—Al Smith, 1933

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

—Judge Learned Hand, 1944

Every country has the government it deserves.

—Joseph de Maistre, 1811