Archive

Quotes

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

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

—Anthony Burgess, 1972

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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, 1887

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

—Robert Byrd, 2005

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

—Horace, c. 8 BC

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

—Mao Zedong, 1938

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

—Henrik Ibsen, 1882

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

—Tacitus, c. 117

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

—Catherine the Great, c. 1796

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

—Anthony Trollope, 1862

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

—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1830