It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

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.

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

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

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

Every country has the government it deserves.

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

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

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

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

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