I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

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.

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.

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

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

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

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

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

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.

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