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

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

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

Envy is the basis of democracy.

Politics is the art of the possible.

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

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

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

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, 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.

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

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

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.