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

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

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

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

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

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

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

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

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.

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