Archive

Quotes

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

—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

—Judge Learned Hand, 1944

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.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

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

—Henrik Ibsen, 1882

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1830

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.

—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

—Dean Acheson, 1970

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

—Robert Byrd, 2005

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1830

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

It 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, 1625

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

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

—Anthony Burgess, 1972