The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970Quotes
I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.
—Immanuel Kant, 1784A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.
—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917No 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.
—Magna Carta, 1215The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.
—Judge Learned Hand, 1944