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

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.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

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.