Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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