Motivational Quotes

Politics

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.

- Auden, W. H.

Best Quotes about Politics

Nobody is a friend of ours. Let's face it.

Nixon, Richard M.

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.

Koestler, Arthur

Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.

Reagan, Ronald

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.

Miller, Henry

The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.

Rogers, Will

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.

Chapman, John Jay

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.

Bagehot, Walter

You are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on -- into the dustbin of history!

Trotsky, Leon

It is hard to say why politicians are called servants, unless it is because a good one is hard to find.

Lieberman, Gerald F.

10.

The house of Lords is a model on how to care for the elderly.

Field, Franklin

11.

I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat!

Rogers, Will

12.

You have to have been a Republican to know how good it is to be a Democrat.

Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy

13.

Until you've been in politics you've never really been alive; it's rough and sometimes it's dirty and it's always hard work and tedious details. But, it's the only sport for grown-ups all other games are for kids.

14.

A promising young man should go into politics so that he can go on promising for the rest of his life.

Byrne, Robert

15.

It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.

Albert Einstein

16.

Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

Orwell, George

17.

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.

Dixon, Alan

18.

In politics the choice is constantly between two evils.

Morley, John

19.

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.

George, David Lloyd

20.

I don't care who does the electing as long as I get to do the nominating.

Tweed, Boss

21.

Nothing is irreparable in politics.

Anouilh, Jean

22.

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!

Dickens, Charles

23.

Don't buy a single vote more than necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.

Kennedy, Joseph

24.

The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance and never to keep his work.

Swift, Jonathan

25.

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.

Hazlitt, William

26.

Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.

Churchill, Winston

27.

Man is by nature a political animal.

Aristotle

28.

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.

Davis, Angela Y.

29.

The politician who never made a mistake never made a decision.

Major, John

30.

Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.

Rogers, Will

31.

Politics is the science of urgencies.

Parker, Theodore

32.

What we need in appointive positions are men of knowledge and experience with sufficient character to resist temptations.

Coolidge, Calvin

33.

Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse.

Stevenson, Adlai E.

34.

I adore political parties. They are the only place left to us where people don't talk politics.

Wilde, Oscar

35.

Don't fall in love with politicians, they're all a disappointment. They can't help it, they just are.

Noonan, Peggy

36.

The heaviest penalty for deciding to engage in politics is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.

Plato

37.

Let us not forget that we can never go farther than we can persuade at least half of the people to go.

Gaitskell, Hugh

38.

An empty stomach is not a good political advisor.

Einstein, Albert

39.

To know your place is a good idea in politics. That is not to say stay in your place or hang on to your place, because ambition or boredom may dictate upward or downward mobility, but a sense of place -- a feel for one's own position in the control room -- is useful in gauging what you should try to do.

Safire, William

40.

One can say that three pre-eminent qualities are decisive for the politician: passion, a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of proportion.

Weber, Max

41.

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.

Mcluhan, Marshall

42.

Mediocrity in politics is not to be despised. Greatness is not needed.

Enzensberger, Hans Magnus

43.

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.

Roosevelt, Theodore

44.

Politics has never been for the thin-skinned or the faint of heart, and if you enter the arena , you should expect to get roughed up. Moreover, Democracy in a nation of more than 300 million people is inherently difficult.

President Barack Obama

45.

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.

Johnson, Samuel

46.

What in fact takes place in an election is that two hand picked candidates are propped up before the citizenry, each candidate having been selected by a very small group of politically active people. A minority of the people... then elects one of these hand picked people to rule itself and the majority.

Ringer, Robert J.

47.

In politics the middle way is none at all.

Adams, John

48.

Nothing is so abject and pathetic as a politician who has lost his job, save only a retired stud-horse.

Mencken, H. L.

49.

The right man, in the right place, at the right time, can steal millions.

Nunn, Gregory

50.

The reason political party platforms are so long is that when you straddle anything it takes a long time to explain it.