Politics & Power Quotes — page 158

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

What economists call over-production is but a production that is above the purchasing power of the worker, who is reduced to poverty by Capital and State.

A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will …

An American Government cannot permit Americans to starve.

We are not all equal, and never shall be; the true postulate of democracy is not equality but the faith that every man and woman is worth while.

I believe the landed interest should be the basis of our political and social system.

America has many glories. The last one that she would wish to surrender is the glory of the men who have served her in war. While such devotion lives, the nation is secure. Whatever dangers may threaten from within or without, she can view …

We are either a united people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all matters of general concern act as a Nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a …

Believing that these propositions, and the [conclusions] I draw from them can not be successfully controverted, I, for the present, assume their correctness, and proceed to try to show, that the abandonment of the protective policy by the …

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or …

The success of a party means little except when the Nation is using that party for a large and definite purpose.

You cannot write the bloody laws of slavery on those restless billows. The ocean, if not the land, is free.

We must make, if we can, an enduring peace. That is why I feel so strongly regarding the proposal to hand over two million Germans to the Poles, who are an inferior people so far as concerns the experience and capacity for government. We …

As the United States is the freest of all nations, so, too, its people sympathize with all people struggling for liberty and self-government; but while so sympathizing it is due to our honor that we should abstain from enforcing our views …

The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws whenever he receives an injury. One of the first duties of government is to afford that protection.

State interference is an evil, where it cannot be shown to be a good.

This civil service law is the biggest fraud of the age. It is the curse of the nation. p. 11

Wherever democracy has prevailed, the power of the State has been used in some form or other to plunder the well-to-do classes for the benefit of the poor.

There are certain irregularities which are not the subject of criminal law. But when the criminal law happens to be auxiliary to the law of morality, I do not feel any inclination to explain it away.

There is a breed of men who do not deserve the name of Germans. I trust that the entire nation will find the strength to beat back their outrageous attacks. If that does not occur, I shall have to call on you, my Guards, for protection …

In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.

A monopoly, once it is formed and controls thousands of millions, inevitably penetrates into every sphere of public life, regardless of the form of government and all other "details".

A single assembly will never be a steady guardian of the laws

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.