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

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

Every country has the government it deserves.

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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Whether 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.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

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

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

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