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Quotes

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

—Thomas Jefferson, 1787

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

—Che Guevara, 1968

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

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

—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832

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

—Judge Learned Hand, 1944

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

—Walter Bagehot, 1863

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

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

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

—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850

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

—Immanuel Kant, 1784

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

—Catherine the Great, c. 1796

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

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944

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

—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BC

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.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774