When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I speak the truth, and they never believe me.

I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I speak the truth, and they never believe me.

Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against read more

Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against change...[T]he progress of humanity, far from being the result of government, has been made entirely without its aid and in the face if its constant and bitter opposition.

Every device employed to bolster individual freedom must have as its chief purpose the impairment of the absoluteness of power. read more

Every device employed to bolster individual freedom must have as its chief purpose the impairment of the absoluteness of power. The indications are that such an impairment is brought about not by strengthening the individual and pitting him against the possessors of power, but by distributing and diversifying power and pitting one category or unit of power against the other. Where power is one, the defeated individual, however strong and resourceful, can have no refuge and no recourse.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] read more

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it read more

A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests.

Politics is the art of the possible.

Politics is the art of the possible.

There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and read more

There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts which are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses. Both the strong and the weak grasp at this alibi. The latter hide their malevolence under the virtue of obedience: they acted dishonorably because they had to obey orders. The strong, too, claim absolution by proclaiming themselves the chosen instrument of a higher power- God, history, fate, nation or humanity.

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

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