The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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.

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

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

Envy is the basis of democracy.

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.

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.

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

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

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

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.