Political Insights
Abraham Lincoln:
The ballot is stronger than the bullet. [American President]
Aesop:
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
Aldous Huxley:
At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice
and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism,
dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.
Anais Nin:
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we
become automatons. We cease to grow.
Angela Davis:
The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between
the requirement that position be taken on current issues as they arise and the
desire that one's contributions will somehow survive the ravages of time.
Ann Richards:
I've always said that in politics, your enemies can't hurt you, but your friends
will kill you.
Aristotle:
Man is by nature a political animal. [Greek Philosopher]
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.:
What we need is a rebirth of satire, of dissent, of irreverence, of an
uncompromising insistence that phoniness is phony and platitudes are
platitudinous.
Benjamin Whichcote:
Among politicians the esteem of religion is profitable; the principles of it are
troublesome.
Bill Moyers:
Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow. And politics is the bow of
idealism.
Blaise Pascal:
Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.
Carl Schurz:
The peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure
only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: "Our country -- when right
to be kept right; when wrong to be put right."
Carolyn Heilbrun:
Thinking about profound social change, conservatives always expect disaster,
while revolutionaries confidentially expect utopia. Both are wrong.
Confucius:
To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put
the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in
order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts
right.
Dave Barry:
The Democrats seem to be basically nicer people, but they have demonstrated time
and again that they have the management skills of celery. They're the kind of
people who'd stop to help you change a flat, but would somehow manage to set
your car on fire. I would be reluctant to entrust them with a Cuisinart, let
alone the economy. The Republicans, on the other hand, would know how to fix
your tire, but they wouldn't bother to stop because they'd want to be on time
for Ugly Pants Night at the country club.
David Broder:
Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing
and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.
Demosthenes:
There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and
security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it?
Distrust.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
Politics are not the task of a Christian.
Edward Dowling:
The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the
widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the
chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it. [1941]
Eleanor Roosevelt:
When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human
misery rather than avenge it?
Elie Wiesel:
It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities
restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government. But is this a
reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer. Neither is resignation.
Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a
punishment
Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
An election cannot give a country a firm sense of direction if it has two or
more national parties which merely have different names but are as alike in
their principles and aims as two peas in the same pod.
Freda Adler:
Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is
anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit.
Friedrich Nietzsche:
Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, political parties, nations, and
eras it's the rule.
George Bernard Shaw:
Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never
were and say, "Why not?"
frequently attributed to Robert F. (Bobby) Kennedy, who used it in a speech
which his brother, Edward F. (Teddy) Kennedy quoted at RFK's funeral.
George Burns:
Too bad that all the people who really know how to run the country are busy
driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.
George J. Mitchell:
Although he's regularly asked to do so, God does not take sides in American
politics.
George Orwell:
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
George Wilhelm Hegel:
What experience and history teach is this -- that people and governments never
have learned anything from history, or acted on principles.
George Will:
You really don't want a president who is a football fan. Football combines the
worst features of American life. It is violence punctuated by committee
meetings.
Goethe:
Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers
of nationality.
Groucho Marx:
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it
incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
H. G. Wells:
In politics, strangely enough, the best way to play your cards is to lay them
face upwards on the table.
H. L. Mencken:
In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as
for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
Harriet Lerner:
Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable
from social and political change.
Harry S Truman:
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of
opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly
repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and
creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
Henrik Ibsen:
It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their
experiments on journalists and politicians.
Hermann Goering:
Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England,
nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the
leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to
drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or
a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to
do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack
of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any
country. quote verified at snopes.com
Hubert H. Humphrey:
Here we are the way politics ought to be in America; the politics of happiness,
the politics of purpose and the politics of joy.
James Madison:
A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it,
is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.
Jane Auer:
Voting is one of the few things where boycotting in protest clearly makes the
problem worse rather than better.
Jean Hollands:
The person who says "I'm not political" is in great danger.... Only the fittest
will survive, and the fittest will be the ones who understand their office's
politics.
Jeff Greenfield:
More things in politics happen by accident or exhaustion than happen by
conspiracy.
Jesse Jackson:
In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.
Jim Hightower:
When I entered politics, I took the only downward turn you could take from
journalism.
Jimmy Carter:
The sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.
John Adams:
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics
and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography,
natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in
order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music,
architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
John Adams:
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to
trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
John F. Kennedy:
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who
are rich.
John Gardner:
The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life,
make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.
John Kenneth Galbraith:
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the
disastrous and the unpalatable.
Johnny Carson:
Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't
grow up can be vice president.
Justice William O. Douglas:
As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both
instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And
it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air however
slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
Lily Tomlin:
Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking,
honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity.
But then, we elected them.
Lily Tomlin:
Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working,
honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity.
But then, we elected them.
Lord Acton:
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the party that succeeds,
by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
Margaret Chase Smith:
My creed is that public service must be more than doing a job efficiently and
honestly. It must be a complete dedication to the people and to the nation with
full recognition that every human being is entitled to courtesy and
consideration, that constructive criticism is not only to be expected but
sought, that smears are not only to be expected but fought, that honor is to be
earned, not bought.
Mark Twain:
No public interest is anything other or nobler than a massed accumulation of
private interests. [American Author]
Mark Twain:
Wherefore being all of one mind, we do highly resolve that government of the
grafted by the grafter for the grafter shall not perish from the earth.
[American Author]
Mary Wollstonecraft:
Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.
Med Yones:
It is not possible to have a politics-free
organization. The desire for power is part of human nature, our business and
our world. Successful leaders know how to leverage politics by setting
performance-oriented instead of resources-oriented political gains. [President of International Institute of Management]
Med Yones:
God created land, politicians created
boundaries. On the inevitability of globalization [President of International Institute of Management]
Michael Harrington:
That the poor are invisible is one of the most important things about them. They
are not simply neglected and forgotten as in the old rhetoric of reform; what is
much worse, they are not seen.
Mohandas K. Gandhi:
Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion
is. [Indian Leader, Peace Guru]
Molly Ivins:
As a veteran of many an electoral defeat at the polls, may I remind you of the
proper Texan attitude toward slaughter at the polls?
Molly Ivins:
Good thing we've still got politics in Texas -- finest form of free
entertainment ever invented.
Molly Ivins:
Naturally, when it comes to voting, we in Texas are accustomed to discerning
that fine hair's-breadth worth of difference that makes one hopeless dipstick
slightly less awful than the other. But it does raise the question: Why bother? Oh, it's just that your life is at stake.
Molly Ivins:
You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to.
Nikita Krushchev:
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where
there is no river.
Noam Chomsky:
American society is now remarkably atomized. Political organizations have
collapsed. In fact, it seems like even bowling leagues are collapsing. The left
has a lot to answer for here. There's been a drift toward very fragmenting
tendencies among left groups, toward this sort of identity politics. [American
Author]
Noam Chomsky:
If you go to one demonstration and then go home, that's something, but the
people in power can live with that. What they can't live with is sustained
pressure that keeps building, organisations that keep doing things, people that
keep learning lessons from the last time and doing it better the next time.
[American Author]
Noam Chomsky:
States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on
powerful institutions. [American Author]
Noam Chomsky:
There is no reason to accept the doctrines crafted to sustain power and
privilege, or to believe that we are constrained by mysterious and unknown
social laws. These are simply decisions made within institutions that are
subject to human will and that must face the test of legitimacy. And if they do
not meet the test, they can be replaced by other institutions that are more free
and more just, as has happened often in the past. [American Author]
Oscar Levant:
A politician is a man who will double cross that bridge when he comes to it.
Otto Van Bismarck:
The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.
P. J. O'Rourke:
In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five
of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all
else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.
P. J. O'Rourke:
Then there's politics. Just imagine politics with its dumbbell element
subtracted. There would be no Republican candidates. There would be no
Democratic voters. The whole system would collapse.
Paul Wellstone:
The people of this country, not special interest big money, should be the source
of all political power.
Paulo Freire:
Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means
to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.
Plato:
The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. [Greek
Philosopher]
Plato:
There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till
philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and
rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy
thus come into the same hands. [Greek Philosopher]
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Public opinion, I am sorry to say, will bear a great deal of nonsense. There is
scarcely any absurdity so gross, whether in religion, politics, science or
manners, which it will not bear. [American Author]
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
These rabble at Washington ... see, against the unanimous expression of the
people, how much a little well-directed effrontery can achieve, how much crime
the people will bear, and they proceed from step to step... (Journal, June 1846)
[American Author]
Richard M. Nixon:
Politics would be a helluva good business if it weren't for the goddamned
people.
Robert Coles:
Abraham Lincoln did not go to Gettysburg having commissioned a poll to find out
what would sell in Gettysburg. There were no people with percentages for him,
cautioning him about this group or that group or what they found in exit polls a
year earlier. When will we have the courage of Lincoln?
Robert Frost:
Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance.
Robert Louis Stevenson:
Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought
necessary.
Robert M. Hutchins:
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will
be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.
Saul Alinsky:
As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like
it to be.
Sinclair Lewis:
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the
cross.
Thomas Jefferson:
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws
and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As
that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new
truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of
circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We
might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy
as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous
ancestors. [American President]
Thomas Jefferson:
If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck
turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we
have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake. [American
President]
Thomas Jefferson:
A politician looks forward only to the next election. A statesman looks forward
to the next generation. [American President]
Vaclav Havel:
Genuine politics -- even politics worthy of the name -- the only politics I am
willing to devote myself to -- is simply a matter of serving those around us:
serving the community and serving those who will come after us. Its deepest
roots are moral because it is a responsibility expressed through action, to and
for the whole.
Wendell Phillips:
Politics is but the common pulse-beat, of which revolution is the fever-spasm.
Will Rogers:
Everything is changing. People are taking the comedians seriously and the
politicians as a joke
Winston Churchill:
No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting
of elections. [British Prime Minister]
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