He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850Quotes
The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCSic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787The 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, 1774What, 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.
—Frederick Douglass, 1855I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
—Mao Zedong, 1938My 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.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770