The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.

You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor.

So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable.

In every particular state of the world, those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others; and in certain marked peculiarities the strongest tend to be the best.

In the faculty of writing nonsense, stupidity is no match for genius.

A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.

Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.