Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

Envy is the basis of democracy.

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

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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

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

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

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

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

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

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

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.