Politicians and Politics Quotes
Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.Politicians and Politics
Adams, Henry Brooks
1838-1918 American Historian
Politics, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.
Politicians and Politics
Adams, Henry Brooks
1838-1918 American Historian
In politics the middle way is none at all.
Politicians and Politics
Adams, John
1735-1826 Second President of the USA
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.
Politicians and Politics
Ameringer, Oscar
American Author Critic
Growing older, I have lost the need to be political, which means, in this country, the need to be left. I am driven into grudging toleration of the Conservative Party because it is the party of non-politics, of resistance to politics.
Politicians and Politics
Amis, Kingsley
1922-1995 British Novelist
The only way you can do that [Balance The Budget, Decrease Taxes, and Increase Military Spending] is with mirrors, and that s what it would take.
Politicians and Politics
Anderson, John B.
Nothing is irreparable in politics.
Politicians and Politics
Anouilh, Jean
1910-1987 French Playwright
All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
Politicians and Politics
Arbuthnot, John
1667-1735 Grampian-Born Physician and Writer
Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.
Politicians and Politics
Aristotle
BC 384-322 Greek Philosopher
What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.
Politicians and Politics
Aristotle
BC 384-322 Greek Philosopher
Politics will sooner or later make fools of everybody.
Politicians and Politics
Armey, Dick
American Politician
Politics is about putting yourself in a state of grace.
Politicians and Politics
Ashdown, Paddy
American Politician
He could not see a belt without hitting below it.
Politicians and Politics
Asquith, Margot
1864-1945 British Socialite
The belief that politics can be scientific must inevitably produce tyrannies. Politics cannot be a science, because in politics theory and practice cannot be separated, and the sciences depend upon their separation. Empirical politics must be kept in bounds by democratic institutions, which leave it up to the subjects of the experiment to say whether it shall be tried, and to stop it if they dislike it, because, in politics, there is a distinction, unknown to science, between Truth and Justice.
Politicians and Politics
Auden, W. H.
1907-1973 Anglo-American Poet
My deepest feeling about politicians is that they are dangerous lunatics to be avoided when possible and carefully humored; people, above all, to whom one must never tell the truth.
Politicians and Politics
Auden, W. H.
1907-1973 Anglo-American Poet
It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.
Politicians and Politics
Bacon, Francis
1561-1626 British Philosopher Essayist Statesman
When great questions end, little parties begin.
Politicians and Politics
Bagehot, Walter
1826-1877 British Economist Critic
The apparent rulers of the English nation are like the imposing personages of a splendid procession: it is by them the mob are influenced; it is they whom the spectators cheer. The real rulers are secreted in second-rate carriages; no one cares for them or asks after them, but they are obeyed implicitly and unconsciously by reason of the splendor of those who eclipsed and preceded them.
Politicians and Politics
Bagehot, Walter
1826-1877 British Economist Critic
A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
Politicians and Politics
Bagehot, Walter
1826-1877 British Economist Critic
Every political system is an accumulation of habits, customs, prejudices, and principles that have survived a long process of trial and error and of ceaseless response to changing circumstances. If the system works well on the whole, it is a lucky accident -- the luckiest, indeed, that can befall a society.
Politicians and Politics
Banfield, Edward C.
The politician is like an acrobat : he keeps his balance By saying the opposite of what he does.
Politicians and Politics
Barres
A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren t still there, he s no longer a political leader.
Politicians and Politics
Baruch, Bernard M.
1870-1965 American Financier
The era of the political was one of anomie: crisis, violence, madness and revolution. The era of the trans-political is that of anomaly: an aberration of no consequence, contemporaneous with the event of no consequence.
Politicians and Politics
Baudrillard, Jean
French Postmodern Philosopher Writer
Politicians -- power itself -- are abject because they merely embody the profound contempt people have for their own lives. One should be grateful to the politicians for accepting the abstractness of power, and ridding others of its burden. This inevitably kills them but they get their revenge by passing onto others the corpse of power.
Politicians and Politics
Baudrillard, Jean
French Postmodern Philosopher Writer
It only takes a politician believing in what he says for the others to stop believing him.
Politicians and Politics
Baudrillard, Jean
French Postmodern Philosopher Writer
The abjection of our political situation is the only true challenge today. Only facing up to this situation in all its desperation can help us get out of it.
Politicians and Politics
Baudrillard, Jean
French Postmodern Philosopher Writer
We are not just here to manage capitalism but to change society and to define its finer values.
Politicians and Politics
Benn, Tony
1925 British Labor Politician
The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.
Politicians and Politics
Benn, Tony
1925 British Labor Politician
Yogi met George Bush during an election campaign. Bush said Texas was important. Yogi said Texas has a lot of electrical votes.
Politicians and Politics
Berra, Yogi
1925 American Baseball Player
Politics is a blood sport.
Politicians and Politics
Bevan, Aneurin
1897-1960 British Labor Politician
The Prime Minister has an absolute genius for putting flamboyant labels on empty luggage.
Politicians and Politics
Bevan, Aneurin
1897-1960 British Labor Politician
What is a democrat? One who believes that the republicans have ruined the country. What is a republican? One who believes that the democrats would ruin the country.
Politicians and Politics
Bierce, Ambrose
1842-1914 American Author Editor Journalist The Devil's Dictionary
Politics is not an exact science.
Politicians and Politics
Bismarck, Otto Von
1815-1898 Prussian Statesman Prime Minister
Politics is the art of the next best.
Politicians and Politics
Bismarck, Otto Von
1815-1898 Prussian Statesman Prime Minister
I am really sorry to see my countrymen trouble themselves about politics. If men were wise, the most arbitrary princes could not hurt them. If they are not wise, the freest government is compelled to be a tyranny. Princes appear to me to be fools. Houses of Commons and Houses of Lords appear to me to be fools; they seem to me to be something else besides human life.
Politicians and Politics
Blake, William
1757-1827 British Poet Painter
The greatest art of a politician is to render vice serviceable to the cause of virtue.
Politicians and Politics
Bolingbroke, Henry
1678-1751 British Politician
In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.
Politicians and Politics
Bonaparte, Napoleon
1769-1821 French General Emperor
In politics, an absurdity is not a handicap.
Politicians and Politics
Bonaparte, Napoleon
1769-1821 French General Emperor
In politics, an absurdity in public business is going into it.
Politicians and Politics
Bonaparte, Napoleon
1769-1821 French General Emperor
I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
Politicians and Politics
Borrow, George
1803-1881 British Author
The history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.
Politicians and Politics
Bradlee, Ben C.
Politics are usually the executive expression of human immaturity.
Politicians and Politics
Brittain, Vera
1893-1970 British Writer
A passion for politics stems usually from an insatiable need, either for power, or for friendship and adulation, or a combination of both.
Politicians and Politics
Brodie, Fawn M.
1915-1981 American Biographer
Any established village; could afford a town drunkard, a town atheist, and a few Democrats.
Politicians and Politics
Brogan, Denis E.
A liberal is a man who leaves a room when the fight begins.
Politicians and Politics
Broun, Heywood
1888-1939 American Journalist Novelist
It doesn t matter what I say as long as I sound different from other politicians.
Politicians and Politics
Brown, Jerry
I hope the two wings of the Democratic Party may flap together.
Politicians and Politics
Bryan, William Jennings
1860-1925 American Lawyer Politician
No wonder that, when a political career is so precarious, men of worth and capacity hesitate to embrace it. They cannot afford to be thrown out of their life s course by a mere accident.
Politicians and Politics
Bryce, James
A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.
Politicians and Politics
Burke, Edmund
1729-1797 British Political Writer Statesman
Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.
Politicians and Politics
Burke, Edmund
1729-1797 British Political Writer Statesman
Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
Politicians and Politics
Burke, Edmund
1729-1797 British Political Writer Statesman
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
Politicians and Politics
Burke, Edmund
1729-1797 British Political Writer Statesman
People say I m indecisive, but I don t know about that.
Politicians and Politics
Bush, George
1924 Forty-first President of the USA
A promising young man should go into politics so that he can go on promising for the rest of his life.
Politicians and Politics
Byrne, Robert
I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments; and, as it is the shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first moment of an universal republic would convert me into an advocate for single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, nor worse, for a people than another.
Politicians and Politics
Byron, Lord
1788-1824 British Poet
An honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought.
Politicians and Politics
Cameron, W. J.
Politics and the fate of mankind are shaped by men without ideals and without greatness. Men who have greatness within them don t go in for politics.
Politicians and Politics
Camus, Albert
1913-1960 French Existential Writer
Away with the cant of Measures, not men! -- the idle supposition that it is the harness and not the horses that draw the chariot along. No, Sir, if the comparison must be made, if the distinction must be taken, men are everything, measures comparatively nothing.
Politicians and Politics
Canning, George
1770-1827 British Statesman
Sometimes in politics one must duel with skunks, but no one should be fool enough to allow skunks to choose the weapons.
Politicians and Politics
Cannon, Joseph
Little other than a red tape Talking-machine, and unhappy Bag of Parliamentary Eloquence.
Politicians and Politics
Carlyle, Thomas
1795-1881 Scottish Philosopher Author
It is a vain hope to make people happy by politics.
Politicians and Politics
Carlyle, Thomas
1795-1881 Scottish Philosopher Author
Religion is organized to satisfy and guide the soul -- politics does the same thing for the body.
Politicians and Politics
Cary, Joyce
1888-1957 British Author
The problem with political jokes is they get elected.
Politicians and Politics
Cate, Henry
Political organizations have slowly substituted themselves for the Churches as the places for believing practices. Politics has once again become religious.
Politicians and Politics
Certeau, Michel De
French Writer
A political organization is a transferable commodity. You could not find a better way of killing virtue than by packing it into one of these contraptions which some gang of thieves is sure to find useful.
Politicians and Politics
Chapman, John Jay
1862-1933 American Author
The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he has of the principles of counterpoint. Each is a thing used in politics or music which those fellows who practice politics or music manipulate somehow. Show him one and he will deny that it is politics at all. It must be corrupt or he will not recognize it. He has only seen dried figs. He has only thought dried thoughts. A live thought or a real idea is against the rules of his mind.
Politicians and Politics
Chapman, John Jay
1862-1933 American Author
If American politics does not look to you like a joke, a tragic dance; if you have enough blindness left in you, on any plea, on any excuse, to vote for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party (for at present machine and party are one), or for any candidate who does not stand for a new era, -- then you yourself pass into the slide of the magic-lantern; you are an exhibit, a quaint product, a curiosity of the American soil. You are part of the problem.
Politicians and Politics
Chapman, John Jay
1862-1933 American Author
Politics is organized hatred, that is unity.
Politicians and Politics
Chapman, John Jay
1862-1933 American Author
Half a truth is better than no politics.
Politicians and Politics
Chesterton, Gilbert K.
1874-1936 British Author
Every clique is a refuge for incompetence. It fosters corruption and disloyalty, it begets cowardice, and consequently is a burden upon and a drawback to the progress of the country. Its instincts and actions are those of the pack.
Politicians and Politics
Chiang Kai-Shek, Madame
Chinese Revolutionary Leader
In war you can be killed only once. In politics, many times.
Politicians and Politics
Churchill, Winston
1874-1965 British Statesman Prime Minister
Politicians have the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterward to explain why it didn t happen.
Politicians and Politics
Churchill, Winston
1874-1965 British Statesman Prime Minister
Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
Politicians and Politics
Churchill, Winston
1874-1965 British Statesman Prime Minister
Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.
Politicians and Politics
Churchill, Winston
1874-1965 British Statesman Prime Minister
Any 20 year-old who isn t a liberal doesn t have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn t a conservative doesn t have a brain.
Politicians and Politics
Churchill, Winston
1874-1965 British Statesman Prime Minister
There are no true friends in politics. We are all sharks circling, and waiting, for traces of blood to appear in the water.
Politicians and Politics
Clark, Alan
A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.
Politicians and Politics
Clarke, James Freeman
1810-1888 American Minister Theologian
You need to know that a member of Congress who refuses to allow the minimum wage to come up for a vote made more money during last year s one-month government shutdown than a minimum wage worker makes in an entire year.
Politicians and Politics
Clinton, Bill
1946 Forty-second President of the USA
When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn t like it, and I didn t inhale, and I never tried again.
Politicians and Politics
Clinton, Bill
1946 Forty-second President of the USA
The highest political buzz word is not liberty, equality, fraternity or solidarity; it is service.
Politicians and Politics
Clough, Arthur Hugh
1819-1861 British Poet
Politics is a place of humble hopes and strangely modest requirements, where all are good who are not criminal and all are wise who are not ridiculously otherwise.
Politicians and Politics
Colby, Frank Moore
1865-1925 American Editor Essayist
In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
Politicians and Politics
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
1772-1834 British Poet Critic Philosopher
What we need in appointive positions are men of knowledge and experience with sufficient character to resist temptations.
Politicians and Politics
Coolidge, Calvin
1872-1933 Thirtieth President of the USA
Party leads to vicious, corrupt and unprofitable legislation, for the sole purpose of defeating party.
Politicians and Politics
Cooper, James F.
1789-1851 American Novelist
Now, we deny not, but that politicians may sometimes abuse religion, and make it serve for the promoting of their own private interests and designs; which yet they could not do so well neither, were the thing itself a mere cheat and figment of their own, and had no reality at all in nature, nor anything solid at the bottom of it.
Politicians and Politics
Cudworth, Ralph J.
1617-1688 British Theologian Philosopher
The diplomatic name for the law of the jungle.
Politicians and Politics
Culbertson, Ely
A politician is an ass upon which everyone has sat except a man.
Politicians and Politics
Cummings, E.E. (Edward. E.)
1894-1962 American Poet
Rome had Senators too, and that is why it declined.
Politicians and Politics
Dane, Frank
The news of any politician s death should be listed under Public Improvements.
Politicians and Politics
Dane, Frank
The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between the requirement that position be taken on current issues as they arise and the desire that one s contributions will somehow survive the ravages of time.
Politicians and Politics
Davis, Angela Y.
1944 American Political Activist
In Mexico an air conditioner is called a politician because it makes a lot of noise but doesn t work very well.
Politicians and Politics
Deighton, Len
The bright old day now dawns again; the cry runs through the land, in England there shall be dear bread -- in Ireland, sword and brand; and poverty, and ignorance, shall swell the rich and grand, so rally round the rulers with the gentle iron hand, of the fine old English Tory days; hail to the coming time!
Politicians and Politics
Dickens, Charles
1812-1870 British Novelist
The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.
Politicians and Politics
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
A Conservative government is an organized hypocrisy.
Politicians and Politics
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
A majority is always better than the best repartee.
Politicians and Politics
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
A sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself.
Politicians and Politics
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
Finality is not the language of politics.
Politicians and Politics
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
In politics, nothing is contemptible.
Politicians and Politics
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
No man is regular in his attendance at the House of Commons until he is married.
Politicians and Politics
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
The art of governing mankind by deceiving them.
Politicians and Politics
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
There is no gambling like politics. Nothing in which the power of circumstance is more evident.
Politicians and Politics
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
Things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools.
Politicians and Politics
Disraeli, Benjamin
1804-1881 British Statesman Prime Minister
Politic is going to be diluted down into a ten second window, where you whack the guy as hard as you can and then get out there.
Politicians and Politics
Dixon, Alan
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.
Politicians and Politics
Dryden, John
1631-1700 British Poet Dramatist Critic
It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
Politicians and Politics
Eban, Abba
1915 Israeli Politician
Heads of state are notoriously ill prepared for their mature careers; think of Adolf Hitler (landscape painter), Ho Chi Minh (seaman), and our own Ronald Reagan.
Politicians and Politics
Ehrenreich, Barbara
1941 American Author Columnist
An empty stomach is not a good political advisor.
Politicians and Politics
Einstein, Albert
1879-1955 German-born American Physicist
Politics is far more complicated than physics.
Politicians and Politics
Einstein, Albert
1879-1955 German-born American Physicist
Unlike presidential administrations, problems rarely have terminal dates.
Politicians and Politics
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
1890-1969 Thirty-fourth President of the USA
Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.
Politicians and Politics
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
1890-1969 Thirty-fourth President of the USA
There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of cant and hypocrisy.
Politicians and Politics
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
1803-1882 American Poet Essayist
Mediocrity in politics is not to be despised. Greatness is not needed.
Politicians and Politics
Enzensberger, Hans Magnus
As far as the men who are running for president are concerned, they aren t even people I would date.
Politicians and Politics
Ephron, Nora
1941 American Author Journalist
Nothing is so foolish, they say, as for a man to stand for office and woo the crowd to win its vote, buy its support with presents, court the applause of all those fools and feel self-satisfied when they cry their approval, and then in his hour of triumph to be carried round like an effigy for the public to stare at, and end up cast in bronze to stand in the market place.
Politicians and Politics
Erasmus, Desiderius
c1466-1536 Dutch Humanist
The house of Lords is a model on how to care for the elderly.
Politicians and Politics
Field, Franklin
What this country needs is radicals who will stay that way regardless of the creeping years.
Politicians and Politics
Fischer, John
Elected leaders who forget how they got there won t the next time.
Politicians and Politics
Forbes, Malcolm S.
1919-1990 American Publisher Businessman
Few businessmen are capable of being in politics, they don t understand the democratic process, they have neither the tolerance or the depth it takes. Democracy isn t a business.
Politicians and Politics
Forbes, Malcolm S.
1919-1990 American Publisher Businessman
The first mistake in public business is going into it.
Politicians and Politics
Franklin, Benjamin
1706-1790 American Scientist Publisher Diplomat
Politics is a profession where the paths of glory lead but to the gravy.
Politicians and Politics
Franklin, Billy Boy
A politician divides mankind into two classes; tools and enemies.
Politicians and Politics
Fredrich
The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.
Politicians and Politics
French National Assembly
The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun.
Politicians and Politics
Fuller, R. Buckminster
1895-1983 American Inventor Designer Poet Philosopher
Let us not forget that we can never go farther than we can persuade at least half of the people to go.
Politicians and Politics
Gaitskell, Hugh
There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose.
Politicians and Politics
Galbraith, John Kenneth
1908 American Economist
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
Politicians and Politics
Galbraith, John Kenneth
1908 American Economist
Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.
Politicians and Politics
Galbraith, John Kenneth
1908 American Economist
There is one rule for politicians all over the world: Don t say in Power what you say in opposition; if you do, you only have to carry out what the other fellows have found impossible.
Politicians and Politics
Galsworthy, John
1867-1933 British Novelist Playwright
I do not deny that there may be other well-founded causes for the hatred which various classes feel toward politicians, but the main one seems to me that politicians are symbols of the fact that every class must take every other class into account.
Politicians and Politics
Gasset, Jose Ortega Y
1883-1955 Spanish Essayist Philosopher
Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him.
Politicians and Politics
Gaulle, Charles De
1890-1970 French President during World War II
I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Politicians and Politics
Gaulle, Charles De
1890-1970 French President during World War II
What do you want to be a sailor for? There are greater storms in politics than you will ever find at sea. Piracy, broadsides, blood on the decks. You will find them all in politics.
Politicians and Politics
George, David Lloyd
1863-1945 British Statesman Prime Minister
In politics, as on the sickbed, people toss from side to side, thinking they will be more comfortable.
Politicians and Politics
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von
1749-1832 German Poet Dramatist Novelist
Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world.
Politicians and Politics
Goldman, Emma
1869-1940 American Anarchist
The political arena leaves one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue.
Politicians and Politics
Goldman, Emma
1869-1940 American Anarchist
If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government.
Politicians and Politics
Goldwater, Barry
1909 American Politician and Writer
It s a great country, where anybody can grow up to be president... except me.
Politicians and Politics
Goldwater, Barry
1909 American Politician and Writer
My life s work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.
Politicians and Politics
Gorbachev, Mikhail
1931 Soviet Statesman and President of USSR (1988-91)
If a politician isn t doing it to his wife , then he s doing it to his country.
Politicians and Politics
Grant, Amy
American Singer Song Writer
I never said all Democrats were saloonkeepers; what I said was all saloonkeepers are Democrats.
Politicians and Politics
Greeley, Horace
1811-1872 American Newspaper Editor
Ninety percent of politics is deciding whom to blame.
Politicians and Politics
Greenfield, Meg
Ignorance makes most men go into a political party, and shame keeps them from getting out of it.
Politicians and Politics
Halifax, Edward F.
1881-1959 British Conservative Statesman
In politics, being ridiculous is more damaging than being extreme.
Politicians and Politics
Hattersley, Roy
1932 British Statesman
He serves his party best who serves his country best.
Politicians and Politics
Hayes, Rutherford B.
A Whig is properly what is called a Trimmer -- that is, a coward to both sides of the question, who dare not be a knave nor an honest man, but is a sort of whiffing, shuffling, cunning, silly, contemptible, unmeaning negation of the two.
Politicians and Politics
Hazlitt, William
1778-1830 British Essayist
A politician will do anything to keep his job, even become a patriot.
Politicians and Politics
Hearst, William Randolph
1863-1951 American Newspaper Publisher
We are the trade union for pensioners and children, the trade union for the disabled and the sick... the trade union for the nation as a whole.
Politicians and Politics
Heath, Edward
1916 British Statesman and Prime Minister
In politics, as in life, we must above all things wish only for the attainable.
Politicians and Politics
Heine, Heinrich
1797-1856 German Poet Journalist
You know, what I very well know, that I bought you. And I know, what perhaps you think I don t know, you are now selling yourselves to somebody else; and I know, what you do not know, that I am buying another borough. May God s curse light upon you all: may your houses be as open and common to all Excise Officers as your wives and daughters were to me, when I stood for your scoundrel corporation.
Politicians and Politics
Henley, Anthony
Politics is like a race horse. A good jockey must know how to fall with the least possible damage.
Politicians and Politics
Herriot, Edouard
Politics is a choice of enemas. You re gonna get it up the ass, no matter what you do.
Politicians and Politics
Higgins, George V.
1939 American Novelist
Politics is the profession of those who have neither trade nor art.
Politicians and Politics
Hijazi, Muhammad
One wanders to the left, another to the right. Both are equally in error, but, are seduced by different delusions.
Politicians and Politics
Horace
BC 65-8 Italian Poet
Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature.
Politicians and Politics
Hubbard, Kin
1868-1930 American Humorist Journalist
Politics makes strange postmasters.
Politicians and Politics
Hubbard, Kin
1868-1930 American Humorist Journalist
I do not look for much to come out of government ownership as long as we have Democrats and Republicans.
Politicians and Politics
Hubbard, Kin
1868-1930 American Humorist Journalist
If there is anything a public servant hates to do it is something for the public.
Politicians and Politics
Hubbard, Kin
1868-1930 American Humorist Journalist
The essence of statesmanship is not a rigid adherence to the past, but a prudent and probing concern for the future.
Politicians and Politics
Humphrey, Hubert H.
1911-1978 American Democratic Politician Vice President
Never answer a question from a farmer.
Politicians and Politics
Humphrey, Hubert H.
1911-1978 American Democratic Politician Vice President
A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a practice of tenure in public office.
Politicians and Politics
Humphrey, Hubert H.
1911-1978 American Democratic Politician Vice President
Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.
Politicians and Politics
Huxley, Aldous
1894-1963 British Author
Cant is always rather nauseating; but before we condemn political hypocrisy, let us remember that it is the tribute paid by men of leather to men of God, and that the acting of the part of someone better than oneself may actually commit one to a course of behavior perceptibly less evil than what would be normal and natural in an avowed cynic.
Politicians and Politics
Huxley, Aldous
1894-1963 British Author
There is no sea more dangerous than the ocean of practical politics -- none in which there is more need of good pilots and of a single, unfaltering purpose when the waves rise high.
Politicians and Politics
Huxley, Thomas H.
1825-1895 British Biologist Educator
My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised.
Politicians and Politics
Jackson, Jesse
1941 American Clergyman Civil Rights Leader
When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.
Politicians and Politics
Jefferson, Thomas
1743-1826 Third President of the USA
Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them.
Politicians and Politics
Jefferson, Thomas
1743-1826 Third President of the USA
Son, in politics you ve got to learn that overnight chicken shit can turn to chicken salad.
Politicians and Politics
Johnson, Lyndon B.
1908-1973 Thirty-sixth President of the USA
If you re I politics and you can t tell when you walk into a room who s for you and who s against you, then you re in the wrong line of work.
Politicians and Politics
Johnson, Lyndon B.
1908-1973 Thirty-sixth President of the USA
You slam a politician, you make out he s the devil, with horns and hoofs. But his wife loves him, and so did all his mistresses.
Politicians and Politics
Johnson, Pamela Hansford
1912-1981 British Writer
Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politics, and their whole conduct proceeds upon it.
Politicians and Politics
Johnson, Samuel
1709-1784 British Author
It is the eternal truth in the political as well as the mystical body, that, where one members suffers, all the members suffer with it.
Politicians and Politics
Junius
1769-1771 Anonymous British Letter Writer
A political convention is not a place where you can come away with any trace of faith in human nature.
Politicians and Politics
Kempton, Murray
1917-1997 American Author and Columnist
Once you run for office, you re in it -- sort of like going into the military. You d better be damned sure it is what you want to do and that the rest of your life is set up to accommodate that. It takes a certain toll on your personality and on your family life. I ve seen it personally.
Politicians and Politics
Kennedy Jr., John F.
1960 Son of President John F Kennedy
Most of us are conditioned for many years to have a political viewpoint -- Republican or Democratic, liberal, conservative, or moderate. The fact of the matter is that most of the problems that we now face are technical problems, are administrative problems. They are very sophisticated judgments, which do not lend themselves to the great sort of passionate movements which have stirred this country so often in the past. [They] deal with questions which are now beyond the comprehension of most men.
Politicians and Politics
Kennedy, John F.
1917-1963 Thirty-fifth President of the USA
Don t buy a single vote more than necessary. I ll be damned if I m going to pay for a landslide.
Politicians and Politics
Kennedy, John F.
1917-1963 Thirty-fifth President of the USA
When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we d been saying they were.
Politicians and Politics
Kennedy, John F.
1917-1963 Thirty-fifth President of the USA
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build A bridge even where there is no river.
Politicians and Politics
Khrushchev, Nikita
1894-1971 Soviet Premier
Democrats can t get elected unless things get worse, and things won t get worse unless they get elected.
Politicians and Politics
Kirkpatrick, Jeane
1926 American Stateswoman Academic
Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
Politicians and Politics
Kissinger, Henry
1923 American Republican Politician Secretary of State
If it s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.
Politicians and Politics
Kissinger, Henry
1923 American Republican Politician Secretary of State
Politics can be relatively fair in the breathing spaces of history; at its critical turning points there is no other rule possible than the old one, that the end justifies the means.
Politicians and Politics
Koestler, Arthur
1905-1983 Hungarian Born British Writer
A politician would do well to remember that he has to live with his conscience longer than he does with his constituents.
Politicians and Politics
Laird, Melvin R.
In argument, truth always prevails finally; in politics, falsehood always.
Politicians and Politics
Landor, Walter Savage
1775-1864 British Poet Essayist
What this country needs is more unemployed politicians.
Politicians and Politics
Langley, Edward
He knows very little of mankind who expects, by any facts or reasoning, to convince a determined party man.
Politicians and Politics
Lavater, Johann Kaspar
1741-1801 Swiss Theologian Mystic
To rely upon conviction, devotion, and other excellent spiritual qualities -- that is not to be taken seriously in politics.
Politicians and Politics
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich
1870-1924 Russian Revolutionary Leader
It is hard to say why politicians are called servants, unless it is because a good one is hard to find.
Politicians and Politics
Lieberman, Gerald F.
American Writer
Honest statesmanship is the wise employment of individual meanness for the public good.
Politicians and Politics
Lincoln, Abraham
1809-1865 Sixteenth President of the USA
The ordinary politician has a very low estimate of human nature. In his daily life he comes into contact chiefly with persons who want to get something or to avoid something. Beyond this circle of seekers after privileges, individuals and organized minorities, he is aware of a large unorganized, indifferent mass of citizens who ask nothing in particular and rarely complain. The politician comes after a while to think that the art of politics is to satisfy the seekers after favors and to mollify the inchoate mass with noble sentiments and patriotic phrases.
Politicians and Politics
Lippmann, Walter
1889-1974 American Journalist
Successful democratic politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle, or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies. The decisive consideration is not whether the proposition is good but whether it is popular -- not whether it will work well and prove itself but whether the active talking constituents like it immediately. Politicians rationalize this servitude by saying that in a democracy public men are the servants of the people.
Politicians and Politics
Lippmann, Walter
1889-1974 American Journalist
The chief element in the art of statesmanship under modern conditions is the ability to elucidate the confused and clamorous interests which converge upon the seat of government. It is an ability to penetrate from the naïve self-interest of each group to its permanent and real interest. Statesmanship consists in giving the people not what they want but what they will learn to want.
Politicians and Politics
Lippmann, Walter
1889-1974 American Journalist
Politicians say they re beefing up our economy. Most don t know beef from pork.
Politicians and Politics
Lowman, Hariold
Many politicians lay it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.
Politicians and Politics
Macaulay, Lord
As usual the Liberals offer a mixture of sound and original ideas. Unfortunately none of the sound ideas is original and none of the original ideas is sound.
Politicians and Politics
Macmillan, Harold
1894-1986 British Conservative Politician Prime Minister
At home you always have to be a politician. When you re abroad you almost feel yourself a statesman.
Politicians and Politics
Macmillan, Harold
1894-1986 British Conservative Politician Prime Minister
The politician who never made a mistake never made a decision.
Politicians and Politics
Major, John
British Prime Minister
The first requirement of politics is not intellect or stamina but patience. Politics is a very long run game and the tortoise will usually beat the hare.
Politicians and Politics
Major, John
British Prime Minister
Did you ever notice that when a politician does get an idea he usually gets it all wrong.
Politicians and Politics
Marquis, Don
1878-1937 American Humorist Journalist
Politics doesn t make strange bedfellows, marriage does.
Politicians and Politics
Marx, Groucho
1895-1977 American Comic Actor
The Tories in England had long imagined that they were enthusiastic about the monarchy, the church and beauties of the old English Constitution, until the day of danger wrung from them the confession that they are enthusiastic only about rent.
Politicians and Politics
Marx, Karl
1818-1883 German Political Theorist Social Philosopher
The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.
Politicians and Politics
Marx, Karl
1818-1883 German Political Theorist Social Philosopher
In the domain of Political Economy, free scientific inquiry meets not merely the same enemies as in all other domains. The peculiar nature of the material it deals with, summons as foes into the field of battle the most violent, mean and malignant passions of the human breast, the Furies of private interest.
Politicians and Politics
Marx, Karl
1818-1883 German Political Theorist Social Philosopher
As in private life one differentiates between what a man thinks and says of himself and what he really is and does, so in historical struggles one must still more distinguish the language and the imaginary aspirations of parties from their real organism and their real interests, their conception of themselves from their reality.
Politicians and Politics
Marx, Karl
1818-1883 German Political Theorist Social Philosopher
It is unfair to expect a politician to live in private up to the statements he makes in public.
Politicians and Politics
Maugham, W. Somerset
1874-1965 British Novelist Playwright
A man who is a politician at forty is a statesman at three score and ten. It is at this age, when he would be too old to be a clerk or a gardener or a police-court magistrate, that he is ripe to govern a country.
Politicians and Politics
Maugham, W. Somerset
1874-1965 British Novelist Playwright
The two-party system has given this country the war of Lyndon Johnson, the Watergate of Nixon, and the incompetence of Carter. Saying we should keep the two-party system simply because it is working is like saying the Titanic voyage was a success because a few people survived on life-rafts.
Politicians and Politics
Mccarthy, Eugene J.
1916 American Politician
One thing about a pig, he thinks he s warm if his nose is warm. I saw a bunch of pigs one time that had frozen together in a rosette, each one s nose tucked under the rump of the one in front. We have a lot of pigs in politics.
Politicians and Politics
Mccarthy, Eugene J.
1916 American Politician
It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember.
Politicians and Politics
Mccarthy, Eugene J.
1916 American Politician
In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.
Politicians and Politics
Mccarthy, Mary
1912-1989 American Author Critic
Politics is the enemy of the imagination.
Politicians and Politics
Mcewan, Ian
1948 British Author
Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.
Politicians and Politics
Mcluhan, Marshall
1911-1980 Canadian Communications Theorist
Nothing is so abject and pathetic as a politician who has lost his job, save only a retired stud-horse.
Politicians and Politics
Mencken, H. L.
1880-1956 American Editor Author Critic Humorist
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and Hence Clamorous To Be Led To Safety] by an endless series of hobgoblins.
Politicians and Politics
Mencken, H. L.
1880-1956 American Editor Author Critic Humorist
A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
Politicians and Politics
Mencken, H. L.
1880-1956 American Editor Author Critic Humorist
A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.
Politicians and Politics
Mill, John Stuart
1806-1873 British Philosopher Economist
One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one.
Politicians and Politics
Miller, Henry
1891-1980 American Author
Although he s regularly asked to do so, God does not take sides in American politics.
Politicians and Politics
Mitchell, George J.
Political image is like mixing cement. When it s wet, you can move it around and shape it, but at some point it hardens and there s almost nothing you can do to reshape it.
Politicians and Politics
Mondale, Walter F.
1928 American Politician and Vice-president (1977--81)
Hell hath no fury like a crooked politician denied his cut.
Politicians and Politics
Montalbano, Benjamin J.
In politics the choice is constantly between two evils.
Politicians and Politics
Morley, John
1838-1923 British Journalist Biographer Statesman
We all know that Prime Ministers are wedded to the truth, but like other wedded couples they sometimes live apart.
Politicians and Politics
Munro, Hector Hugh
1870-1916 British Novelist Writer
When you ve got them by their wallets, their hearts and minds will follow.
Politicians and Politics
Naito, Fern
The Empress is legitimate, my cousin is Republican, Morny is Orleanist, I am a socialist; the only Bonapartist is Persigny, and he is mad.
Politicians and Politics
Napoleon III
1808-1873 Third son of Louis Bonaparte the President of the Second French Rep
Whether elected or appointed he considers himself the Lord s anointed, and indeed the ointment lingers on him so thick you can t get your fingers on him.
Politicians and Politics
Nash, Ogden
1902-1971 American Humorous Poet
Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote.
Politicians and Politics
Nathan, George Jean
1882-1958 American Critic
The newspaper reader says: this party will ruin itself if it makes errors like this. My higher politics says: a party which makes errors like this is already finished -- it is no longer secure in its instincts.
Politicians and Politics
Nietzsche, Friedrich
1844-1900 German Philosopher
Nobody is a friend of ours. Let s face it.
Politicians and Politics
Nixon, Richard M.
1913-1994 Thirty-seventh President of the USA
I played by the rules of politics as I found them.
Politicians and Politics
Nixon, Richard M.
1913-1994 Thirty-seventh President of the USA
I am not a crook.
Politicians and Politics
Nixon, Richard M.
1913-1994 Thirty-seventh President of the USA
The one thing sure about politics is that what goes up comes down and what goes down often comes up.
Politicians and Politics
Nixon, Richard M.
1913-1994 Thirty-seventh President of the USA
It is far easier for the proverbial camel to pass through the needle s eye, hump and all, than for an erstwhile colonial administration to give sound and honest counsel of a political nature to its liberated territory.
Politicians and Politics
Nkrumah, Kwame
Leader of Ghana's fight for Independence
Sincerity and competence is a strong combi