Category: Thought

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”

“I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions.”

Although government for the people by a beneficent elite is a conceptual possibility, it is a highly improbable one. Elites cannot be relied on to pursue individuals’ interests with anything like the consistency and intensity that individuals themselves regularly do: Benevolent despots are considerably more likely to remain despotic than benevolent. (Democracy and Decision: The Pure Theory of Electoral Preference, p. 167)

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”