The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

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

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

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.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

Every country has the government it deserves.

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

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

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 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.

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

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.