Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963Quotes
There 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, 1215My 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 say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972It 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.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1830The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCLet him who desires peace prepare for war.
—Vegetius, c. 385Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930