Motivational Quotes

Politics

My life's work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.

- Gorbachev, Mikhail

Best Quotes about Politics

Any 20 year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn't a conservative doesn't have a brain.

Churchill, Winston

It takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for fifteen years.

Truman, Harry S

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

There is an increasingly pervasive sense not only of failure, but of futility. The legislative process has become a cruel shell game and the service system has become a bureaucratic maze, inefficient, incomprehensible, and inaccessible.

Richardson, Elliot

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

Every political system is an accumulation of habits, customs, prejudices, and principles that have survived a long process of trial and error and of ceaseless response to changing circumstances. If the system works well on the whole, it is a lucky accident -- the luckiest, indeed, that can befall a society.

Banfield, Edward C.

The only way you can do that [Balance The Budget, Decrease Taxes, and Increase Military Spending] is with mirrors, and that's what it would take.

Anderson, John B.

The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don't acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.

Vonnegut Jr., Kurt

My life's work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.

Gorbachev, Mikhail

10.

No wonder that, when a political career is so precarious, men of worth and capacity hesitate to embrace it. They cannot afford to be thrown out of their life's course by a mere accident.

Bryce, James

11.

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

Barres

12.

When they call the roll in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer present or not guilty.

Roosevelt, Theodore

13.

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

14.

What is a democrat? One who believes that the republicans have ruined the country. What is a republican? One who believes that the democrats would ruin the country.

Bierce, Ambrose

15.

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

16.

I tell you folks, all politics is applesauce.

Rogers, Will

17.

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

Hattersley, Roy

18.

When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.

Jefferson, Thomas

19.

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

20.

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.

21.

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

Will, George F.

22.

Politics is the art of the next best.

Bismarck, Otto Von

23.

Cant is always rather nauseating; but before we condemn political hypocrisy, let us remember that it is the tribute paid by men of leather to men of God, and that the acting of the part of someone better than oneself may actually commit one to a course of behavior perceptibly less evil than what would be normal and natural in an avowed cynic.

Huxley, Aldous

24.

There is 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.

Galsworthy, John

25.

The news of any politician's death should be listed under Public Improvements.

Dane, Frank

26.

If there is anything a public servant hates to do it is something for the public.

Hubbard, Kin

27.

When a leader is in the Democratic Party he is a boss, and when he is in the Republican Party he is a leader.

Truman, Harry S

28.

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

Herriot, Edouard

29.

If it's going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.

Kissinger, Henry

30.

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

Montalbano, Benjamin J.

31.

Politics makes strange postmasters.

Hubbard, Kin

32.

The chief element in the art of statesmanship under modern conditions is the ability to elucidate the confused and clamorous interests which converge upon the seat of government. It is an ability to penetrate from the na?ve self-interest of each group to its permanent and real interest. Statesmanship consists in giving the people not what they want but what they will learn to want.

Lippmann, Walter

33.

I do not look for much to come out of government ownership as long as we have Democrats and Republicans.

Hubbard, Kin

34.

When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it, and I didn't inhale, and I never tried again.

Clinton, Bill

35.

There are no true friends in politics. We are all sharks circling, and waiting, for traces of blood to appear in the water.

Clark, Alan

36.

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

Reagan, Ronald

37.

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

Bagehot, Walter

38.

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon

39.

It is my settled opinion, after some years as a political correspondent, that no one is attracted to a political career in the first place unless he is socially or emotionally crippled.

Waugh, Auberon

40.

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

41.

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.

42.

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

Forbes, Malcolm S.

43.

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

Coolidge, Calvin

44.

In politics the choice is constantly between two evils.

Morley, John

45.

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry.

46.

Ninety percent of politics is deciding whom to blame.

Greenfield, Meg

47.

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

48.

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

49.

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

50.

Politics are for foreigners with their endless wrongs and paltry rights. Politics are a lousy way to get things done. Politics are, like God's infinite mercy, a last resort.

O'Rourke, P. J.