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

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.

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

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

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

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.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

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.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.