People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005Quotes
There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.
—Walter Bagehot, 1863Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.
—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BCA government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944A 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.
—David Foster Wallace, 2000Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930What, 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.
—Frederick Douglass, 1855Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.
—Anacharsis, c. 550 BC