A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

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.

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

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

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

Written 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.

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.

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.