A really good diplomat does not go in for victories, even when he wins them.

When men can no longer be theists, they must, if they are civilized, become humanists.

The justification of majority rule in politics is not to be found in its ethical superiority.

The effort to calculate exactly what the voters want at each particular moment leaves out of account the fact that when they are troubled the thing the voters most want is to be told what to want.

I demand from you in the name of your principles the rights which I shall deny to you later in the name of my principles.

The ordinary politician has a very low estimate of human nature. In his daily life he comes into contact chiefly with persons who want to get something or to avoid something. Beyond this circle of seekers after privileges, individuals and organized minorities, he is aware of a large unorganized, indifferent mass of citizens who ask nothing in particular and rarely complain. The politician comes after a while to think that the art of politics is to satisfy the seekers after favors and to mollify the inchoate mass with noble sentiments and patriotic phrases.

The facts we see depend on where we are placed and the habits of our eyes.