The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972Quotes
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.
—David Foster Wallace, 2000The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
—LaoziTo 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 BCMy 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. 1770People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
—E.B. White, 1944Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
—Mao Zedong, 1938Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.
—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967