Archive

Quotes

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

—Henrik Ibsen, 1882

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792

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

—John Maynard Keynes, 1917

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

—Walter Bagehot, 1863

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

—George H. W. Bush, 1990

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

—Horace, c. 8 BC

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

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

—Paul Valéry, 1943

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

—Dean Acheson, 1970

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

—Thomas Jefferson, 1787

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

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944