Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

No 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.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

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.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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

The 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.