To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

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

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

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

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

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.

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

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

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

Every country has the government it deserves.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.