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.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

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

A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

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