Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963Quotes
The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCThere is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.
—Walter Bagehot, 1863He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625It 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. 1515O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.
—Horace, c. 8 BCIn politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1830The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
—Henrik Ibsen, 1882Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887