The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.
Quitting is leading too.
You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.
Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.
No government can be long secure without a formidable opposition.
Any cook should be able to run the country.
Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.
An aristocracy in a republic is like a chicken whose head has been cut off; it may run about in a lively way, but in fact it is dead.
The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.
When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.
Votes do not fall from the trees like ripe plums. They have to be fought for.
Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women.
I am not an Athenian nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.
Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.
Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who'll get the blame.
Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.
As government expands, liberty contracts.
Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.