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

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

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

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

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.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

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

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

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