Politics and Power

O! it is excellent To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant.

There’s such divinity doth hedge a king, That treason can but peep to what it would.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

But in the gross and scope of my opinion, This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins Remorse from power.

O! he sits high in all the people’s hearts: And that which would appear offense in us, His countenance, like richest alchemy, Will change to virtue and to worthiness.

Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, That he is grown so great?

What infinite heart’s ease Must kings neglect that private men enjoy! And what have kings that privates have not too, Save ceremony, save general ceremony? And what art thou, thou idol 22 ceremony? What kind of god art thou, that suffer’st more Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers? What are thy rents? what are thy comings-in? O ceremony! show me but thy worth.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

A habitation giddy and unsure Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.

Rumor is a pipe Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures, And of so easy and so plain a stop That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, The still-discordant wavering multitude, Can play upon it.

For how can tyrants safely govern home, Unless abroad they purchase great alliance?

Thou [Death] setter up and plucker down of kings. 3

And what makes robbers bold but too much lenity?

Is it not passing brave to be a king, And ride in triumph through Persepolis?

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

For then, in wrath, the Olympian Pericles Thundered and lightened, and confounded Hellas Enacting laws which ran like drinking songs. 1

An old man weds a tyrant, not a wife. 12

Anarchy, anarchy! Show me a greater evil! This is why cities tumble and the great houses rain down, This is what scatters armies!

Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof; it is temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.

Wherever magistrates were appointed from among those who complied with the injunctions of the laws, Socrates considered the government to be an aristocracy.

If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: 'Thou shalt not ration justice.'

A state is not a state if it belongs to one man.

It is the merit of a general to impart good news, and to conceal the truth.