Motivational Quotes

Politics

As in private life one differentiates between what a man thinks and says of himself and what he really is and does, so in historical struggles one must still more distinguish the language and the imaginary aspirations of parties from their real organism and their real interests, their conception of themselves from their reality.

- Marx, Karl

Best Quotes about Politics

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.

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

Certeau, Michel De

Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.

Aristotle

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

Nixon, Richard M.

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

A politician would do well to remember that he has to live with his conscience longer than he does with his constituents.

Laird, Melvin R.

Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.

Churchill, Winston

The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.

Benn, Tony

The first mistake in public business is going into it.

Franklin, Benjamin

10.

The word'politics'is derived from the word'poly', meaning'many', and the word'ticks', meaning'blood sucking parasites'.

Larry Hardiman

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.

The apparent rulers of the English nation are like the imposing personages of a splendid procession: it is by them the mob are influenced; it is they whom the spectators cheer. The real rulers are secreted in second-rate carriages; no one cares for them or asks after them, but they are obeyed implicitly and unconsciously by reason of the splendor of those who eclipsed and preceded them.

Bagehot, Walter

13.

It is hard to say why politicians are called servants, unless it is because a good one is hard to find.

Lieberman, Gerald F.

14.

The essential ingredient in politics is timing.

Trudeau, Pierre Elliott

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

Cary, Joyce

18.

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

Hubbard, Kin

19.

Let me just tell you how thrilling it really is, and how, what a challenge it is, because in 1988 the question is whether we're going forward to tomorrow or whether we're going to go past to the back!

Quayle, Dan

20.

The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.

French National Assembly

21.

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

Nathan, George Jean

22.

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

Dane, Frank

23.

Once you run for office, you're in it -- sort of like going into the military. You'd better be damned sure it is what you want to do and that the rest of your life is set up to accommodate that. It takes a certain toll on your personality and on your family life. I've seen it personally.

Kennedy Jr., John F.

24.

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

25.

Son, in politics you've got to learn that overnight chicken shit can turn to chicken salad.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

26.

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

Rinehart, Dana Gillman

27.

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

28.

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.

29.

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

Churchill, Winston

30.

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.

31.

He could not see a belt without hitting below it.

Asquith, Margot

32.

There is no gambling like politics. Nothing in which the power of circumstance is more evident.

Disraeli, Benjamin

33.

A majority is always better than the best repartee.

Disraeli, Benjamin

34.

An empty stomach is not a good political advisor.

Einstein, Albert

35.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

Lester B. Pearson

36.

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar

37.

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

Bagehot, Walter

38.

The history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.

Bradlee, Ben C.

39.

Most people assume the fights are going to be the left versus the right, but it always is the reasonable versus the jerks.

Jimmy Wales

40.

If a politician isn't doing it to his wife , then he's doing it to his country.

Grant, Amy

41.

People say I'm indecisive, but I don't know about that.

Bush, George

42.

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

43.

In politics, as on the sickbed, people toss from side to side, thinking they will be more comfortable.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

44.

Politics in the United States consists of the struggle between those whose change has been arrested by success or failure, on one side, and those who are still engaged in changing themselves, on the other. Agitators of arrested metamorphosis versus agitators of continued metamorphosis. The former have the advantage of numbers (since most people accept themselves as successes or failures quite early), the latter of vitality and visibility (since self-transformation, though it begins from within, with ideology, religion, drugs, tends to express itself publicly through costume and jargon).

Rosenberg, Harold

45.

Did you ever notice that when a politician does get an idea he usually gets it all wrong.

Marquis, Don

46.

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

Ephron, Nora

47.

Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.

Mark B. Cohen

48.

The diplomatic name for the law of the jungle.