Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man read more

The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.

The legacy of Democrats and Republicans approaches: Libertarianism by bankruptcy.

The legacy of Democrats and Republicans approaches: Libertarianism by bankruptcy.

Except in the sacred texts of democracy and in the incantations of orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend read more

Except in the sacred texts of democracy and in the incantations of orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force. What other virtue can there be in fifty-one percent except the brute fact that fifty-one is more than forty-nine? The rule of fifty-one per cent is a convenience, it is for certain matters a satisfactory political device, it is for others the lesser of two evils, and for others it is acceptable because we do not know any less troublesome method of obtaining a political decision. But it may easily become an absurd tyranny if we regard it worshipfully, as though it were more than a political device. We have lost all sense of its true meaning when we imagine that the opinion of fifty-one per cent is in some high fashion the true opinion of the whole hundred per cent, or indulge in the sophistry that the rule of a majority is based upon the ultimate equality of man.

Because we can expect future generations to be richer than we are, no matter what we do about resources, asking read more

Because we can expect future generations to be richer than we are, no matter what we do about resources, asking us to refrain from using resources now so that future generations can have them later is like asking the poor to make gifts to the rich.

Voters don't decide issues, they decide who will decide issues.

Voters don't decide issues, they decide who will decide issues.

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and read more

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it's important.

Diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest things in the nicest way.

Diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest things in the nicest way.

The jury has a right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy.

The jury has a right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy.