Politics quotes

Political quotes earn their place by outlasting the moment they were said in. The lines here have survived because they name something durable about how power works, who it serves, and what it costs. They come from leaders, dissidents, historians, and journalists from many centuries and many systems. Some are warnings. Some are rallying cries. Some are confessions. None of them are slogans — the best political writing is specific, not loud. Read them as prompts to think, not as ammunition.

• Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

  George Orwell · 1984

• Liberty consists in doing what one desires.

  John Stuart Mill · On Liberty

• I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

  Evelyn Beatrice Hall · The Friends of Voltaire

• All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

  George Orwell · Animal Farm

• Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

  Abraham Lincoln · Letter to Henry Pierce

• Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

  Benjamin Franklin

• There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.

  Vladimir Lenin

• That government is best which governs least.

  Thomas Paine · Common Sense

• In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

  George Orwell

• Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau · The Social Contract

• Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

  Niccolo Machiavelli · The Prince

• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

  Thomas Jefferson · Declaration of Independence

• Wherever law ends, tyranny begins.

  John Locke · Two Treatises of Government

• The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

  Abraham Lincoln

• The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

  Thomas Jefferson · Letter to William Stephens Smith

• The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.

  James A. Garfield

• A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt · Letter to State Governors

• It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

  Niccolo Machiavelli · The Prince

• You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.

  Indira Gandhi

• Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

  Henry David Thoreau · Civil Disobedience

• I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.

  Thomas Jefferson · Letter to Samuel Kercheval

• The tyranny of the majority is now generally included among the evils against which society requires to be on its guard.

  John Stuart Mill · On Liberty