Archive

Quotes

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

—Che Guevara, 1968

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

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

—Anthony Burgess, 1972

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

—John Wilkes Booth, 1865

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

—George Borrow, 1843

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

—Laozi, c. 500 BC

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

—Herodotus, c. 425 BC

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

—Walter Bagehot, 1863

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

—G.K. Chesterton, 1908

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832