It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

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

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

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

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

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

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

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

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

Every country has the government it deserves.

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

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.