A wise and courageous prince, with money, troops and laws, can perfectly well govern men without the aid of religion, which was made only to deceive them; but the stupid people would soon make one for themselves, and as long as there are fools and rascals there will be religions. Ours is assuredly the most ridiculous, the most absurd and the most bloody that has ever infected the world.

— Voltaire (1694-1778), French philosopher

Terror is nought but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue; it is less a particular principle than a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to the pressing needs of the fatherland.

— Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre (1758- guillotined 1794), French revolutionist

Materialists and madmen never have doubts.

— G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), British essayist, novelist

To be governed is to have every opinion, every transaction, every movement noted, registered, counted, rated, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, refused, authorized, endorsed, admonished, prevented, reformed, redressed, corrected.

— Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865), Socialist, spiritual founder French Labor Movement

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

— John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006), Canadian-American economist

Every nation has the government it deserves.

— Josef de Maistre (1753-1821), French diplomat

Patriotism, as I see it, is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.

— George Jean Nathan (1882-1958), American writer, critic

Article 10. Right of Revolution: Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the whole community and not for the interest and emoluments of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to, reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of non-resistence against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.

— New Hampshire Bill of Rights, 1784

GEORGE W. BUSH: I’m looking forward to the feast you’re going to have tonight. I understand I may have the honor of slicing the pig …. I’m optimistic we can still get something done on the Doha Round. It’s going to take work, but G8 is a good place for us to continue the dialogue, and we will. And I guess that’s about all — we discussed a lot of things, in other words. And thank you for having me. I’m looking forward to that pig tonight ….

REPORTER: On both of these. Does it concern you that the Beirut airport has been bombed? And do you see a risk of triggering a wider war? And on Iran, they’ve, so far, refused to respond. Is it now past the deadline, or do they still have more time to respond?

GWB: I thought you were going to ask me about the pig.

REPORTER: I’m curious about that, too.

GWB: The pig? I’ll tell you tomorrow after I eat it.

— During a press availability event with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was going to be serving roast wild boar to President Bush that evening during the G8 Summit, Stralsund, Germany, July 13, 2006

If you want war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most frightful tyrants to which men ever are subject, because doctrines get inside a man’s reason and betray him against himself. Civilized men have done their fiercest fighting for doctrines.

— William Graham Sumner (1840-1910), American economist, sociologist