Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

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.

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

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

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

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

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

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

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

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

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

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

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