Motivational Quotes

Politics

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.

- Canning, George

Best Quotes about Politics

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.

Erasmus, Desiderius

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.

Burke, Edmund

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.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

In politics, being ridiculous is more damaging than being extreme.

Hattersley, Roy

Only he has the calling for politics who is sure that he will not crumble when the world from his point of view is too stupid or base for what he wants to offer. Only he who in the face of all this can say In spite of all! has the calling for politics.

Weber, Max

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

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

Goldwater, Barry

Nothing can be said about our politics that has not already been said about hemorrhoids.

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

10.

The politician is like an acrobat : he keeps his balance By saying the opposite of what he does.

Barres

11.

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.

Junius

12.

Politics is largely a matter of heart.

R. A. Butler

13.

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

Montalbano, Benjamin J.

14.

Politics should share one purpose with religion: the steady emancipation of the individual through the education of his passions.

Will, George F.

15.

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

Gaitskell, Hugh

16.

Ninety percent of politics is deciding whom to blame.

Greenfield, Meg

17.

In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

18.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

Lester B. Pearson

19.

Any established village; could afford a town drunkard, a town atheist, and a few Democrats.

Brogan, Denis E.

20.

The essential ingredient in politics is timing.

Trudeau, Pierre Elliott

21.

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.

Heath, Edward

22.

Politics is a choice of enemas. You're gonna get it up the ass, no matter what you do.

Higgins, George V.

23.

A politician is an ass upon which everyone has sat except a man.

Cummings, E.E. (Edward. E.)

24.

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

25.

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.

Pope, Alexander

26.

Finality is not the language of politics.

Disraeli, Benjamin

27.

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.

Mccarthy, Eugene J.

28.

Politics has less to do with where you live than where your heart is.

Margaret Cho

29.

Political organizations have slowly substituted themselves for the Churches as the places for believing practices. Politics has once again become religious.

Certeau, Michel De

30.

People start parades -- politicians just get out in front and act like they're leading.

Rinehart, Dana Gillman

31.

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

Forbes, Malcolm S.

32.

At home you always have to be a politician. When you're abroad you almost feel yourself a statesman.

Macmillan, Harold

33.

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.

Baruch, Bernard M.

34.

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

Nixon, Richard M.

35.

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

Coolidge, Calvin

36.

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.

Clinton, Bill

37.

In Mexico an air conditioner is called a politician because it makes a lot of noise but doesn't work very well.

Deighton, Len

38.

When great questions end, little parties begin.

Bagehot, Walter

39.

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

40.

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

Herriot, Edouard

41.

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

Stevenson, Adlai E.

42.

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

Swift, Jonathan

43.

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.

44.

As far as the men who are running for president are concerned, they aren't even people I would date.

Ephron, Nora

45.

Politics will sooner or later make fools of everybody.

Armey, Dick

46.

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.

47.

Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote.

Nathan, George Jean

48.

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.

Mondale, Walter F.

49.

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

Plato

50.

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

Bagehot, Walter