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.

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

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

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

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

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

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

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.