Quotes on Politics

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.

Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.

Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.

Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.

There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature and of nations.

To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.

Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.

The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.

When we're unemployed, we're called lazy; when the whites are unemployed it's called a depression.