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

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

Every country has the government it deserves.

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

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

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.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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