POLITICAL PARTIES QUOTES II
quotations about political parties
A sect or a party is an elegant incognito, devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
journal entry, June 20, 1831
There never was any party, faction, sect, or cabal, whatsoever, in which the most ignorant were not the most violent: for a bee is not a busier animal than a blockhead. However, such instruments are necessary to politicians; and perhaps it may be with states as with clocks, which must have some dead weight hanging at them, to help and regulate the motion of the finer and more useful parts.
ALEXANDER POPE
"Thoughts on Various Subjects"
All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
JOHN ARBUTHNOT
attributed, Life of Emerson
A patriot will esteem no man for being of his party.
GEORGE BERKELEY
"Maxims Concerning Patriotism", Works
The animosity of the defeated party is natural, manifest, and invincible.
LORD ACTON
letter to Mary Gladstone, May 23, 1880
It should never be forgotten that, in the struggle between the nations, it is in the interest of each one of them that the other should be weakened by internal struggle. Hence it is always possible to pose the question of whether the parties exist by virtue of their own strength, as their own necessity, or whether rather they only exist to serve the interests of others.
ANTONIO GRAMSCI
Selections from the Prison Notebooks
The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
lecture delivered at the Masonic Temple in Boston, Massachusetts, December 9, 1841
An election cannot give a country a firm sense of direction if it has two or more national parties which merely have different names but are as alike in their principles and aims as peas in the same pod.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
fireside chat, June 24, 1938
The moderate people of every party must combine to support the Government which, on the whole, suits every party best.
WALTER BAGEHOT
The English Constitution
A political party--it's like a sausage grinder; it grinds all the heads up together into one mash, and then it turns them out, link by link, into fatheads and meatheads!
HENRIK IBSEN
An Enemy of the People
The Republic is to parties what the tree is to parasites; the parties are the vermin of the nations, and it is important not to forget that it is with the various pretensions of these political religionaires that we must march by jerks of revolutions in insurrections, and insurrections in state of siege, to lead periodically to the burial of the dead, and to the payment of revolutionary bills which are the bonuses granted by the imbecility of all to the audacity of a few.
ANSELME BELLEGARRIGUE
Au fait! Au fait! Interprétation de l'idée démocratique
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.
EUGENE J. MCCARTHY
Chicago Tribune, September 10, 1978
The morality of a [political] party must grow out of the conscience and the participation of the voters.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
Autobiography
He that espouses parties, can hardly divorce himself from their fate; and more fall with their party than rise with it.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
I find myself ... hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.
ALEXANDER POPE
letter, August 27, 1714
The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly on what should be said on the vital issues of the day.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
speech at the Progressive party convention in Chicago, August 6, 1912
The conservatives love their cheap labor; the liberals love their cheap cause.
EDWARD ABBEY
The Serpents of Paradise
The two great political parties of the nation have existed for the purpose, each in accordance with its own principles, of undertaking to serve the interests of the whole nation. Their members of the Congress are chosen with that great end in view.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
Memorial Day address, May 30, 1923
What does it say about our country when people are so desperate for an alternative to our one-party state masquerading as a two-party state that they'll even elect a professional wrestler governor?
JELLO BIAFRA
address to the U.S. Green Party, June 2000
It's a damned good thing to remember in politics to stick to your party and never attempt to buy the favor of your enemies at the expense of your friends.
JOSEPH GURNEY CANNON
attributed, Uncle Joe Cannon