Politics quotes

Politics: A Treatise on Government, Book III, Chapter XVI, William Ellis translation; represented through the 1912 Dent witness / Project Gutenberg #6762. In comparing rule by a person with rule by law, Aristotle says that passion can affect even the best rulers and concludes that law is reason without desire.

Politics: A Treatise on Government, Book I, Chapter II, William Ellis translation; represented through the Dent edition first issued in 1912 and Project Gutenberg #6762. Aristotle argues that the city is a natural association and says that man is naturally a political animal; this remains ancient political philosophy in translation, not a modern empirical classification.

Frederick Douglass, Oration delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, July 5, 1852, reviewed against the public-domain Wikisource transcription of the original oration. 'This Fourth July is yours, not mine' follows Douglass's contrast between the audience's national independence and the exclusion of enslaved Black Americans; it remains abolitionist indictment, not generic patriotism.

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter II, printed page 79, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill contrasts command-and-obedience relations with equal association and states that society in equality is the normal state toward which improving social relations should move.

Cooper Union Address, February 27, 1860, closing passage. Lincoln is defending Republican opposition to the extension of slavery into federal territories; the line retains that antislavery political context.

Democracy: An American Novel, represented by Project Gutenberg #2815. Senator Silas Ratcliffe says this to Madeleine Lee while defending questionable acts in his political career. It is fictional character dialogue in Adams’s political novel, not Adams speaking autobiographically or prescribing political conduct.

The Red Record (1895), “A Field for Practical Work,” represented by Project Gutenberg #14977. Wells immediately asks supporters to circulate documented facts and figures about lynching; the record preserves the historical anti-lynching campaign context.

The Federalist No. 51, February 1788. The line sits inside Madison’s argument for checks and balances and institutional controls; it is political theory about constitutional design rather than a factual measurement of human nature.

A Defence of Poetry, written 1821 and first published posthumously in 1840; Wikisource transcription. This is the essay’s concluding sentence and summarizes Shelley’s historical literary theory about poetry’s indirect cultural and political influence, not literal legislative authority.

The New Nationalism, Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910. This is Progressive Era political argument about public welfare, economic power and government responsibility, not current policy guidance.

Thomas Hobbes, De Cive, Chapter I, represented in The English Works of Thomas Hobbes, Project Gutenberg #73906. 'All society therefore is either for gain, or for glory' appears inside Hobbes's seventeenth-century argument from appetite, glory and self-interest; it is political anthropology/philosophy, not a modern empirical law of all relationships.

The Children of the Poor, opening chapter, represented by Project Gutenberg #32609. The sentence is Riis’s Progressive-era social-reform argument; surrounding observations and statistics belong to their historical setting and are not presented as current policy data.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke; Wollstonecraft frames the pamphlet as a defense of human rights and the liberty of reason.

Politics: A Treatise on Government, Book III, Chapter IV, William Ellis translation; represented through the 1912 Dent witness / Project Gutenberg #6762. Aristotle compares citizens with sailors whose different offices share one common concern: the safety of the ship, paralleling the safety of the political community.

Leviathan, Part I, Chapter XIII, Project Gutenberg #3207. “And the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” closes Hobbes’s list of consequences in the hypothetical condition where there is no common power able to keep people in awe. It remains a seventeenth-century political-philosophy argument about the state of nature, not a blanket empirical description of ordinary social life.

Some Reflections Upon Marriage, Appendix in the fourth-edition text represented by Project Gutenberg #61143. The edition states that the preceding edition’s extended Preface was moved to the end as an Appendix; there Astell asks, “If all Men are born Free, how is it that all Women are born Slaves?” while challenging claims of natural male supremacy. It is early-modern feminist political-religious polemic, not a literal equation of every form of historical slavery.

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?, July 5, 1852. The sentence precedes Douglass’s statement that the blessings of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence are not enjoyed in common under slavery.

First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1809, represented by Founders Online / National Archives. This clause occurs in Madison’s long statement of presidential principles and remains historical political rhetoric rather than a prediction or current constitutional instruction.

Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801, reviewed against the public-domain Wikisource transcription. The error-of-opinion sentence follows Jefferson's distinction between differences of opinion and differences of principle during an appeal for republican political tolerance; it is historical political rhetoric rather than present-day legal doctrine.

Civil Disobedience, first printed in 1849 as “Resistance to Civil Government”; represented Wikisource text. The surrounding paragraph asks whether citizens should resign conscience to legislators.

The Federalist No. 70, reviewed against the Gideon-edition Wikisource transcription. Hamilton's 'Energy in the executive...' sentence introduces his constitutional case for executive unity, duration, support and competent powers; it remains eighteenth-century institutional argument rather than a timeless empirical rule about government.

Letter to the Reverend Samson Occom, February 11, 1774, published in the Connecticut press and represented by the National Constitution Center. Wheatley’s explicitly religious and natural-rights argument condemns oppression while speaking from the historical context of Atlantic slavery.

“Lynch Law in America,” Chicago, January 1900, represented by Lit2Go’s historical speech transcription. The quotation preserves Wells’s period racial terminology because it is part of the primary text; its purpose is an anti-lynching demand for due process, not endorsement of historical vocabulary.

Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, represented by Founders Online / National Archives. Madison wrote against a proposed Virginia assessment supporting teachers of Christianity. The sentence is historical religious-liberty argument, not current legal advice.

A Fragment on Government, Preface (1776). Bentham introduces the 'greatest happiness of the greatest number' formulation as a fundamental axiom while arguing for criticism and reform of established law. This remains eighteenth-century utilitarian legal/political philosophy rather than a settled universal ethical or policy metric.

Thoughts on Government, April 1776, represented by Founders Online / National Archives. Adams develops an eighteenth-century republican theory of government grounded in public virtue; the sentence is historical political philosophy, not a modern empirical law.

Rights of Man, Part II; historical political argument about representative government and the rule of law.

Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892), “SELF-HELP,” represented by Project Gutenberg #14975. Wells writes “The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press” while explaining why Black newspapers needed resources to investigate and publish suppressed facts about lynching. This is historical anti-lynching journalism and civic argument, not a general empirical rule about media effects.

The Farmer Refuted, February 23, 1775, preserved by Founders Online / National Archives. Hamilton makes the statement in a revolutionary-era pamphlet defending natural-rights arguments against Samuel Seabury. It is a historical political position and should not be treated as current constitutional or legal advice.

Politics: A Treatise on Government, Book III, Chapter VI, William Ellis translation; represented through the 1912 Dent witness / Project Gutenberg #6762. Aristotle distinguishes governments ordered toward the common good from regimes serving rulers’ private advantage; the exact sentence falls before the edition’s Chapter VII heading and therefore belongs to Chapter VI.

“The Status of Woman, Past, Present, and Future,” The Arena, May 1897, pp. 901–908; exact passage independently preserved in the complete Santa Rosa public-library transcription, PDF p. 5. Anthony says legal reforms will not produce complete equality until women help make laws and elect law-makers. The hyphenated “law-makers” wording is retained; this remains historical suffrage advocacy rather than current legal advice.

Inaugural Address, March 4, 1797, represented by Founders Online / National Archives. The clause appears in Adams’s warning about party artifice, corruption and foreign interference in elections; it remains historical presidential rhetoric rather than current election-law advice.

Abigail Adams to John Adams, March 31, 1776. The request appears in a private letter discussing independence, law and women’s lack of political voice; the original spelling and capitalization are substantially preserved.

Solitude of Self; this clause occurs inside Stanton’s argument for education, civic voice, economic opportunity, and emancipation from enforced dependence.

The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter VIII, “Of the Wages of Labour,” Project Gutenberg #3300. Smith follows this sentence by arguing that workers who feed, clothe and lodge society should receive enough of the produce of their labour to be tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.

Farewell Address, September 19, 1796, preserved by Founders Online / National Archives. The sentence appears while Washington urges respect for the Constitution and laws while affirming the people’s right to alter constitutional government. It is a historical republican argument, not present-day legal advice about amendment procedures.

Newer Ideals of Peace, Chapter VIII, ‘Passing of the War Virtues,’ around printed page 216 in the represented 1907 text, Project Gutenberg #69879. Addams argues that patriotism must change with the conditions of a large cosmopolitan nation and criticizes a patriotism founded primarily on military prowess and defence. The sentence remains Progressive-era political and peace argument rather than a neutral modern definition of patriotism.

Speech commonly titled “On Women’s Right to Vote,” delivered after Anthony’s arrest for voting in the 1872 presidential election. The statement is constitutional advocacy from the nineteenth-century U.S. woman-suffrage movement, not current legal advice.

The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience (1670), represented by the CELT / University College Cork transcription. Original-period spelling is retained. Penn is making a seventeenth-century Quaker argument against coercion in religion; the record is historical political-religious thought, not current legal advice.

The Secret Agent, Project Gutenberg #974. This is fictional dialogue spoken by the Professor, an extremist character; the novel does not present his equivalence between terrorism and policing as neutral political fact.

Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, August 18, 1790, Founders Online. Washington follows this by saying the United States government gives “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” The record is historical civic-religious argument, not evidence that the period had already achieved equal liberty in practice.

Speech to the National Woman’s Rights Convention, New York, May 1866, represented by the National Constitution Center historical document. Harper links racial injustice, women’s inequality, civil liberty and shared social responsibility in a Reconstruction-era argument for universal rights.

Letters on England, Letter X, “On Trade,” Project Gutenberg #2445, transcribed from the 1894 Cassell & Co. edition. Voltaire argues that English trade contributed to civic freedom and that freedom in turn extended commerce. The sentence is preserved as an eighteenth-century translated historical and political-economic argument, not a universal economic law or current empirical finding.

Panopticon; or, The Inspection-House, represented by the Wikisource public-domain transcription of the 1791 publication containing letters written in 1787. This is Bentham’s historical institutional and penal-design argument, not a modern endorsement of surveillance or prison policy.

A Voice from the South, “Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race,” Project Gutenberg #61741 / Wikisource 1892 text. The sentence belongs to Cooper's Black feminist argument about representation, education and racial uplift; it is not a generic claim that one individual literally represents every Black person.

First Inaugural Address, final version, April 30, 1789, preserved by Founders Online / National Archives. The sentence belongs to Washington’s inaugural argument linking public duty, morality and the durability of republican government; it records an eighteenth-century political conviction, not an empirical forecast.

On Liberty, Chapter II, Project Gutenberg #34901. Mill’s next argument is epistemic as well as political: suppressing an opinion can deprive everyone of truth or of the clearer understanding created when truth is tested against error.

A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), public-domain text also preserved in The Works of John Locke. Locke immediately distinguishes civil government from religion and argues that persecution should not be disguised as care for souls. His historical position had limits, so this page does not present the letter as a complete modern theory of equal religious freedom.

Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, “Credo,” originally published in 1920. Project Gutenberg #15210. The sentence continues with freedom of association, movement, thought, dream and work “uncursed by color.”