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

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

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

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

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

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Politics is the art of the possible.

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

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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

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

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.

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