Motivational Quotes

Politics

Successful democratic politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle, or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies. The decisive consideration is not whether the proposition is good but whether it is popular -- not whether it will work well and prove itself but whether the active talking constituents like it immediately. Politicians rationalize this servitude by saying that in a democracy public men are the servants of the people.

- Lippmann, 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

A political organization is a transferable commodity. You could not find a better way of killing virtue than by packing it into one of these contraptions which some gang of thieves is sure to find useful.

Chapman, John Jay

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

Hattersley, Roy

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

Kissinger, Henry

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

Enzensberger, Hans Magnus

I always considered statesmen to be more expendable than soldiers.

Truman, Harry S

In war you can be killed only once. In politics, many times.

Churchill, Winston

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

Brown, Jerry

If we choose only to expose ourselves to opinions and viewpoints that are in line to our own, we become more polarized, more set in our own ways. It will only reinforce and deepen the political divides in our country. But if we choose to actively seek out information that challenges our assumptions and beliefs, perhaps we can begin to understand where the people who disagree with us are coming from.

President Barack Obama

10.

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

Rogers, Will

11.

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

Paul Valery

12.

In politics, as in life, we must above all things wish only for the attainable.

Heine, Heinrich

13.

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

Gaitskell, Hugh

14.

An honest politician is one who when he is bought will stay bought.

Cameron, W. J.

15.

Legislators: Rape their wives and do two years. Kill their children and do five years. Steal their money and kiss your ass goodbye.

Powell, L. R.

16.

Politics is organized hatred, that is unity.

Chapman, John Jay

17.

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

18.

An empty stomach is not a good political advisor.

Einstein, Albert

19.

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

Nunn, Gregory

20.

A politician is one that would circumvent God.

Shakespeare, William

21.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

22.

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.

23.

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

Galbraith, John Kenneth

24.

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

25.

No man is regular in his attendance at the House of Commons until he is married.

Disraeli, Benjamin

26.

No party is as bad as its leaders.

Rogers, Will

27.

The essence of statesmanship is not a rigid adherence to the past, but a prudent and probing concern for the future.

Humphrey, Hubert H.

28.

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

29.

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

30.

The Empress is legitimate, my cousin is Republican, Morny is Orleanist, I am a socialist; the only Bonapartist is Persigny, and he is mad.

Napoleon III

31.

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

Albert Einstein

32.

When you've got them by their wallets, their hearts and minds will follow.

Naito, Fern

33.

A candidate could easily commit political suicide if he were to come up with an unconventional thought during a presidential tour.

White, Elwyn Brooks

34.

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.

35.

Most of us are conditioned for many years to have a political viewpoint -- Republican or Democratic, liberal, conservative, or moderate. The fact of the matter is that most of the problems that we now face are technical problems, are administrative problems. They are very sophisticated judgments, which do not lend themselves to the great sort of passionate movements which have stirred this country so often in the past. [They] deal with questions which are now beyond the comprehension of most men.

Kennedy, John F.

36.

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

37.

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

Rogers, Will

38.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.

Ernest Benn

39.

In politics the choice is constantly between two evils.

Morley, John

40.

If you're I politics and you can't tell when you walk into a room who's for you and who's against you, then you're in the wrong line of work.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

41.

If I was forced to choose between the penitentiary and White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you.

Sherman, William T.

42.

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

43.

Politics is the art of the next best.

Bismarck, Otto Von

44.

The abjection of our political situation is the only true challenge today. Only facing up to this situation in all its desperation can help us get out of it.

Baudrillard, Jean

45.

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.

46.

In politics... shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.

Tocqueville, Alexis De

47.

In politics the middle way is none at all.

Adams, John

48.

Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

Churchill, Winston

49.

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

Gorbachev, Mikhail