The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.

The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

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

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

Despotism tempered by assassination, that is our Magna Carta.
[Fr., Le despotisme tempere par l'assassinat, c'est notre magna
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Despotism tempered by assassination, that is our Magna Carta.
[Fr., Le despotisme tempere par l'assassinat, c'est notre magna
charta.]

Truth is the glue that holds government together. Compromise is the oil that makes governments go.

Truth is the glue that holds government together. Compromise is the oil that makes governments go.

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought read more

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Which is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves

Which is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves

I am for Peace, for Retrenchment, and for Reform,--thirty years
ago the great watchwords of the great Liberal Party.

I am for Peace, for Retrenchment, and for Reform,--thirty years
ago the great watchwords of the great Liberal Party.