Motivational Quotes

Politics

I never said all Democrats were saloonkeepers; what I said was all saloonkeepers are Democrats.

- Greeley, Horace

Best Quotes about Politics

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

Jefferson, Thomas

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

Halifax, Edward F.

Politicians -- power itself -- are abject because they merely embody the profound contempt people have for their own lives. One should be grateful to the politicians for accepting the abstractness of power, and ridding others of its burden. This inevitably kills them but they get their revenge by passing onto others the corpse of power.

Baudrillard, Jean

Political success is the ability, when the inevitable occurs, to get credit for it.

Peter, Laurence J.

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.

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

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

Major, John

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

Rogers, Will

Religion is organized to satisfy and guide the soul -- politics does the same thing for the body.

Cary, Joyce

10.

If you can't stand a little sacrifice and you can't stand a trip across the desert with limited water, we're never going to straighten this country out.

Perot, H. Ross

11.

The diplomatic name for the law of the jungle.

Culbertson, Ely

12.

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

Noonan, Peggy

13.

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

14.

Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

Kissinger, Henry

15.

Politics makes strange postmasters.

Hubbard, Kin

16.

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

Dane, Frank

17.

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

Baudrillard, Jean

18.

Politics are usually the executive expression of human immaturity.

Brittain, Vera

19.

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

Enzensberger, Hans Magnus

20.

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

21.

There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose.

Galbraith, John Kenneth

22.

Prosperity is necessarily the first theme of a political campaign.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

23.

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

Kirkpatrick, Jeane

24.

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

Hattersley, Roy

25.

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

26.

Politics is a place of humble hopes and strangely modest requirements, where all are good who are not criminal and all are wise who are not ridiculously otherwise.

Colby, Frank Moore

27.

The ordinary politician has a very low estimate of human nature. In his daily life he comes into contact chiefly with persons who want to get something or to avoid something. Beyond this circle of seekers after privileges, individuals and organized minorities, he is aware of a large unorganized, indifferent mass of citizens who ask nothing in particular and rarely complain. The politician comes after a while to think that the art of politics is to satisfy the seekers after favors and to mollify the inchoate mass with noble sentiments and patriotic phrases.

Lippmann, Walter

28.

Politics is a profession where the paths of glory lead but to the gravy.

Franklin, Billy Boy

29.

The problem with political jokes is they get elected.

Henry Cate VII

30.

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

Rogers, Will

31.

Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them.

Jefferson, Thomas

32.

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

33.

It doesn't matter what I say as long as I sound different from other politicians.

Brown, Jerry

34.

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

John Kenneth Galbraith

35.

A majority is always better than the best repartee.

Disraeli, Benjamin

36.

A liberal is a man who leaves a room when the fight begins.

Broun, Heywood

37.

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

Coolidge, Calvin

38.

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

39.

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.

40.

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

Certeau, Michel De

41.

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

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.

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

Macmillan, Harold

44.

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

Plato

45.

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.

46.

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

Charles De Gaulle

47.

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.

48.

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

Reagan, Ronald

49.

People with high ideals don't necessarily make good politicians. If clean politics is so important, we should leave the job to scientists and the clergy.

Watanabe, Michio

50.

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

Rogers, Will