It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515Quotes
A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.
—David Foster Wallace, 2000I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCOn the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
—Mao Zedong, 1938An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.
—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865If 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.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.
—Immanuel Kant, 1784