There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

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.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

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

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

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

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

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

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.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.