You know better than I that in a Republic talent is always suspect. A man attains an elevated position only when his mediocrity prevents him from being a threat to others. And for this reason a democracy is never governed by the most competent, but rather by those whose insignificance will not jeopardize anyone else's self-esteem.

— Niccolo Machiavelli

Inspiring the usual suspect quotes that are about usual suspects

The old believe everything; the middle aged suspect everything, and the young know everything.

And I really suspect that of all the things we think we want to know, the only thing we really want to know is that we are loved. And if Jesus means anything, he means that you are loved. I hope you know that. And I hope you stop worrying about all the stuff you don't know, because I don't think it amounts to a hill of beans.

I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest of our prayers make, and all the people those...prayers were destined to affect...we would be so paralyzed with awe...that we would be unable to get up off our knees for the rest of our lives.

War Is A Racket : I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time.

Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher- ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed.

I suspect that dreams are an integral part of existence, with far more use for us than we've made of them...The fine line between the dream state and reality is at times, for me, quite grey.

Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect.

Even in our day, science suspects beyond the Polar seas, at the very circle of the Arctic Pole, the existence of a sea which never freezes and a continent which is ever green.

Let no man think we can deny civil liberty to others and retain it for ourselves. When zealous agents of the Government arrest suspected "radicals" without warrant, hold them without prompt trial, deny them access to counsel and admission of bail....we have shorn the Bill of Rights of its sanctity.

A person's mere propinquity to others independently suspected of criminal activity does not give rise to probable cause to search that person.

I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.

One cannot be betrayed if one has no people.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

I suspect music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of... our mental faculties.

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.

The major economic policy challenges facing the nation today - pick your favorites among the usual suspects of low public and household savings, concerns about educational quality and achievement, high and rising income inequality, the large imbalances between our social insurance commitments and resources - are not about monetary policy.

Where there is mystery, it is generally suspected there must also be evil.

He was, she reflected, almost rudely like a tortoise;

and she was glad her friend kept none as pets or they might have suspected mockery.

I saw no African people in the printed and illustrated Sunday school lessons.

I began to suspect at this early age that someone had distorted the image of my people. My long search for the true history of African people the world over began.

I am not opposed to the limited use of polygraphs in a case where a person is suspected of wrongdoing. But widespread use of the polygraph as a screening tool goes far beyond what is acceptable.

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.

Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.

I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

Of course there is nothing that cannot be done incorrectly.

I suspect the psychological pressure associated with that crisis caused the first mental blackout I had ever suffered. It contributed to a deterioration in my health that later required the insertion of a heart pacemaker.

Prime Suspect - Prime Suspect is a British police procedural television drama series devised by Lynda La Plante. It stars Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison, one of the first

Highly Suspect - Highly Suspect is an American rock band from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The band consists of twin brothers Rich (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Ryan Meyer

The Usual Suspects - The Usual Suspects is a 1995 neo-noir mystery film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie. It stars Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne

Suspect Zero - Suspect Zero is a 2004 American psychological thriller film directed by E. Elias Merhige and starring Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, and Carrie-Anne Moss

Suspect (disambiguation) - A suspect is a person suspected of committing a crime. Suspect or suspects may also refer to: Suspect (1960 film), a British thriller directed by Roy

Prime suspect - A prime suspect or key suspect is a person who is considered by the law enforcement agency investigating a crime to be the most likely suspect. The idiom

Prime Suspect 1973 - Suspect 1973 (also known as Prime Suspect: Tennison) is a British television detective drama series, and a prequel to the long-running Prime Suspect series

Suspect Device - Suspect Device may refer to "Suspect Device," a song by Stiff Little Fingers from the 1979 album Inflammable Material Suspect Device, an Ohio-based punk

Suspect X - Suspect X (容疑者Xの献身, Yōgisha Ekkusu no Kenshin) is a 2008 Japanese mystery-thriller film based on the novel, The Devotion of Suspect X, directed by Hiroshi

THING TO TRY: If you are asked to describe a suspect to a police sketch artist, describe in precise detail, the features of the police sketch artist. This is one of the rare instances where two people can do one self-portrait.

By definition, you have to live until you die.

Better to make that life as complete and enjoyable an experience as possible, in case death is shite, which I suspect it will be.

Interviewers always used to ask me about my pageboy haircut, and it drove me nuts: it almost made me suspect that there was something strange about it. So I cut off my pageboy.

They say that Virginia is the mother of Texas.

We never knew who the father was, but we kinda suspected Tennessee.

Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there - I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television.

There were many ways of not burdening one's conscience, of shunning responsibility, looking away, keeping mum. When the unspeakable truth of the Holocaust then became known at the end of the war, all too many of us claimed that they had not known anything about it or even suspected anything.

I've been in and out of Wall Street since 1949, and I've never seen the type of animosity between government and Wall Street. And I'm not sure where it comes from, but I suspect it's got to do with a general schism in this society which is really becoming ever more destructive.

Fear of emotional contact with men out of fear of being a sexual suspect makes boys, ironically, even more powerless before girls. Homophobia is like telling the United States it will be a sissy nation if it doesn't get all its oil from OPEC.

The cold, mean 'Sunset Boulevard' - a beautiful title, though I suspect it was shot on another boulevard - is further proof of the resurgence of art in the Hollywood of super-craftsmen with insuperable taste.