quotations about politics
It is always important in matters of high politics to know what you do not know. Those who think they know, but are mistaken, and act upon their mistakes, are the most dangerous people to have in charge.
MARGARET THATCHER
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Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World
I want nothing to do with politicians. Their hearts wither away, and die out of their bodies. Their consciences are turned to india-rubber, or to some substance as black as that, and which will stretch as much.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
The American Notebooks, 1840
Politics is not just about policy and facts, it's also about style and appeal.
ET EDIT
"For Donald Trump, politics is about style and appeal", The Economic Times, May 9, 2016
I tell you folks, all politics is applesauce.
WILL ROGERS
The Illiterate Digest, 1924
Politics is the food of sense exposed to the hunger of folly.
FULKE GREVILLE
Maxims, Characters and Reflections
Everybody knows politics is a contact sport.
BARACK OBAMA
The New Yorker, May 31, 2004
The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary.
WILHELM REICH
The Mass Psychology of Fascism
It is not the principled partisan, however obnoxious he may seem to his opponents, who degrades our public debate, but the preening, self-styled statesman who elevates compromise to a first principle.
TOM DELAY
CNN, June 9, 2006
The acid test of politics is not what you say at the hustings, but what you actually do in government.
MARGARET THATCHER
speech to Scottish Conservative Party Conference, May 12, 1979
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
New Hopes for a Changing World
That mysterious independent variable of political calculation, Public Opinion.
THOMAS HUXLEY
"Universities, Actual & Ideal"
Politics is a profession; a serious, complicated and, in its true sense, a noble one.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
letter to Leonard V. Finder, January 22, 1948
Not to have a correct political point of view is like having no soul.
MAO ZEDONG
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong
When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it.
G. K. CHESTERTON
Illustrated London News, April 6, 1918
There's just 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.
JOHN GALSWORTHY
Maid in Waiting
In 2018, the White House is occupied by a man with no evident principles beyond promoting his own brand and chalking up "wins," however he might define them. He's so uninterested in the particulars of governing that he recently told lawmakers that he would sign whatever immigration bill they sent him. How do you negotiate with a chief executive who doesn't know what a good deal is?
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
"The Jell-O President and the Shutdown", New York Times, January 22, 2018
A politician don't steal elections, he pays for 'em.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
Fanaticism displays itself in the masses; but the masses were rarely fanaticised; and the crimes ascribed to it were commonly due to the calculations of dispassionate politicians.
LORD ACTON
The History of Freedom in Christianity
When all three branches of government treat politics like a game or a reality show, they shouldn't be surprised when voters do as well.
ADAM BUTTON
"Suddenly politics is for serious people with serious ideas", Forex Live, May 6, 2016
Politics is just show business for ugly people.
JAY LENO
attributed, Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations