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.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

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

Politics is the art of the possible.

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

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

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

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

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

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

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.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.