Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887Quotes
There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.
—Al Smith, 1933The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970No 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, 1215Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.
—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.
—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BCThe whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
—H.L. Mencken, 1921