Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

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

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

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

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

Envy is the basis of democracy.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

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.