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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

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.

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

Politics is the art of the possible.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.