My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

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

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

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

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.

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

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

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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.

Every country has the government it deserves.

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.