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

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

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

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

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

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

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.

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

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.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

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