It 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, 1625Quotes
Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.
—Walter Bagehot, 1863What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1830An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.
—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
—E.B. White, 1944If 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.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
—Mao Zedong, 1938On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580My 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. 1770