Politics is the art of the possible.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

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

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

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

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

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

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

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

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

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