Motivational Quotes

Politics

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.

Best Quotes about Politics

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

Hubbard, Kin

Finality is not the language of politics.

Disraeli, Benjamin

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

Only very intelligent people don't wish they were in politics, and I'm dumb enough to want to be in there.

Welles, Orson

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

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.

Ameringer, Oscar

The belief that politics can be scientific must inevitably produce tyrannies. Politics cannot be a science, because in politics theory and practice cannot be separated, and the sciences depend upon their separation. Empirical politics must be kept in bounds by democratic institutions, which leave it up to the subjects of the experiment to say whether it shall be tried, and to stop it if they dislike it, because, in politics, there is a distinction, unknown to science, between Truth and Justice.

Auden, W. H.

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

Lieberman, Gerald F.

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.

10.

What this country needs is more unemployed politicians.

Langley, Edward

11.

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

Charles De Gaulle

12.

One can say that three pre-eminent qualities are decisive for the politician: passion, a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of proportion.

Weber, Max

13.

The first mistake in public business is going into it.

Franklin, Benjamin

14.

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

15.

Politics is the gizzard of society, full of gut and gravel.

Thoreau, Henry David

16.

One wanders to the left, another to the right. Both are equally in error, but, are seduced by different delusions.

Horace

17.

Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

Orwell, George

18.

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

Herriot, Edouard

19.

Within the first few months I discovered that being president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed.

Truman, Harry S

20.

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

21.

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

Ephron, Nora

22.

It is a vain hope to make people happy by politics.

Carlyle, Thomas

23.

A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.

Stevenson, Adlai E.

24.

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

Franklin, Billy Boy

25.

One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one.

Miller, Henry

26.

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

Montalbano, Benjamin J.

27.

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

Coolidge, Calvin

28.

The diplomatic name for the law of the jungle.

Culbertson, Ely

29.

Yogi met George Bush during an election campaign. Bush said Texas was important. Yogi said Texas has a lot of electrical votes.

Berra, Yogi

30.

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

John Kenneth Galbraith

31.

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.

32.

An empty stomach is not a good political advisor.

Einstein, Albert

33.

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

34.

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

Churchill, Winston

35.

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

36.

Party leads to vicious, corrupt and unprofitable legislation, for the sole purpose of defeating party.

Cooper, James F.

37.

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.

38.

The courts of kings are full of people, but empty of friends.

Seneca

39.

No political party has exclusive patent rights on prosperity.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

40.

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

41.

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

Hattersley, Roy

42.

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

43.

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

Peter, Laurence J.

44.

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

45.

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

Broun, Heywood

46.

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

Reagan, Ronald

47.

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.

48.

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.

Ambrose Bierce

49.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

50.

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