On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580Quotes
Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.
—Anacharsis, c. 550 BCMy 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.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862No 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.
—Magna Carta, 1215A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811Whether 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.
—Arthur Miller, 2001Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.
—Immanuel Kant, 1784Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCThe Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968