Politics is the art of the possible.

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.

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.

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.

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

Every country has the government it deserves.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

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

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

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

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

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