Motivational Quotes

Politics

When great questions end, little parties begin.

- Bagehot, Walter

Best Quotes about Politics

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.

Byron, Lord

I played by the rules of politics as I found them.

Nixon, Richard M.

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 only takes a politician believing in what he says for the others to stop believing him.

Baudrillard, Jean

Prosperity is necessarily the first theme of a political campaign.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

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

Rogers, Will

Politics is organized hatred, that is unity.

Chapman, John Jay

If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government.

Goldwater, Barry

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

10.

Elected leaders who forget how they got there won't the next time.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

11.

A politician will do anything to keep his job, even become a patriot.

Hearst, William Randolph

12.

Nothing is irreparable in politics.

Anouilh, Jean

13.

A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.

Bagehot, Walter

14.

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.

Macaulay, Lord

15.

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.

Camus, Albert

16.

A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.

Stevenson, Adlai E.

17.

All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.

Arbuthnot, John

18.

The most difficult choice a politician must ever make is whether to be a hypocrite or a liar.

19.

It's a great country, where anybody can grow up to be president... except me.

Goldwater, Barry

20.

Politics is like a race horse. A good jockey must know how to fall with the least possible damage.

Herriot, Edouard

21.

Politics is applesauce.

Will Rogers

22.

Hell hath no fury like a crooked politician denied his cut.

Montalbano, Benjamin J.

23.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

Reagan, Ronald

24.

Any man with a fine shock of hair, a good set of teeth, and a bewitching smile can park his brains, if he has any, and run for public office.

25.

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

Reagan, Ronald

26.

In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.

Mccarthy, Mary

27.

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.

Kennedy, John F.

28.

Politics is the gizzard of society, full of gut and gravel.

Thoreau, Henry David

29.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

Paul Valery

30.

A politician divides mankind into two classes; tools and enemies.

Fredrich

31.

To rely upon conviction, devotion, and other excellent spiritual qualities -- that is not to be taken seriously in politics.

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich

32.

To speak on without saying anything has always been the greatest gift of orators.

Platen

33.

I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Gaulle, Charles De

34.

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.

Ehrenreich, Barbara

35.

In politics, an absurdity in public business is going into it.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

36.

Never answer a question from a farmer.

Humphrey, Hubert H.

37.

The first mistake in public business is going into it.

Franklin, Benjamin

38.

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.

Ambrose Bierce

39.

In politics the choice is constantly between two evils.

Morley, John

40.

Democrats can't get elected unless things get worse, and things won't get worse unless they get elected.

Kirkpatrick, Jeane

41.

Ignorance makes most men go into a political party, and shame keeps them from getting out of it.

Halifax, Edward F.

42.

Only very intelligent people don't wish they were in politics, and I'm dumb enough to want to be in there.

Welles, Orson

43.

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.

Chapman, John Jay

44.

The Prime Minister has an absolute genius for putting flamboyant labels on empty luggage.

Bevan, Aneurin

45.

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

Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy

46.

He knows very little of mankind who expects, by any facts or reasoning, to convince a determined party man.

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

47.

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

48.

The most successful politician is he who says what everybody is thinking most often and in the loudest voice.

Roosevelt, Theodore

49.

Before we get too depressed about the state of our politics, let's remember our history. The great debates of the past, all stirred great passions. They all made somebody angry, and at least once led to a terrible war. What is amazing, is that despite all the conflict, our experiment in democracy has worked better than any form of government on earth.

President Barack Obama

50.

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