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.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

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

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

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

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

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

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

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

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.

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

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.