Any 20 year-old who isn’t a liberal doesn’t have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn’t a conservative doesn’t have a brain.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
A politician thinks of the next election; a statement of the next generation. A politician looks for the success of his party; a statesman for that of his country. The statesman wishes to steer, while the politician is satisfied to drift.
—James Freeman Clarke (1810–88) American Unitarian Clergyman, Abolitionist, Author
Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
You slam a politician, you make out he’s the devil, with horns and hoofs. But his wife loves him, and so did all his mistresses.
—Pamela Hansford Johnson (1912–81) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Literary Critic, Social Critic
Religion is organized to satisfy and guide the soul—politics does the same thing for the body.
—Joyce Cary (1888–1957) English Novelist, Artist
Every clique is a refuge for incompetence. It fosters corruption and disloyalty, it begets cowardice, and consequently is a burden upon and a drawback to the progress of the country. Its instincts and actions are those of the pack.
—Soong Mei-ling (1898–2003) First Lady of the Republic of China
Politics should share one purpose with religion: the steady emancipation of the individual through the education of his passions.
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers.
—Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) Russian Head of State, Political leader
A politician is an ass upon which everyone has sat except a man.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
People say I’m indecisive, but I don’t know about that.
—George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American Republican Statesman, 41st President
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.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
I find myself… hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
Ninety percent of politics is deciding whom to blame.
—Meg Greenfield (1930–99) American Editor, Journalist, Socialite
People start parades—politicians just get out in front and act like they’re leading.
—Buck Rinehart (1946–2015) American Lawyer, Politician
It is a very easy thing to devise good laws; the difficulty is to make them effective. The great mistake is that of looking upon men as virtuous, or thinking that they can be made so by laws; and consequently the greatest art of a politician is to render vices serviceable to the cause of virtue.
—Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) English Politician, Philosopher
The political arena leaves one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue.
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Lithuanian-American Anarchist, Feminist
A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
I hope the two wings of the Democratic Party may flap together.
—William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925) American Political leader, Diplomat, Politician
I do not deny that there may be other well-founded causes for the hatred which various classes feel toward politicians, but the main one seems to me that politicians are symbols of the fact that every class must take every other class into account.
—Jose Ortega y. Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish Critic, Journalist, Philosopher
It’s a great country, where anybody can grow up to be president… except me.
—Barry Goldwater (1909–98) American Elected Representative, Businessperson, Politician
He serves his party best who serves his country best.
—Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–93) President of the United States
He speaks to Me as if I was a public meeting.
—Queen Victoria (1819–1901) British Royal
Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
If I was forced to choose between the penitentiary and White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you.
—William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–91) American Military Leader, Businessperson, Educator
Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
Only very intelligent people don’t wish they were in politics, and I’m dumb enough to want to be in there.
—Orson Welles (1915–85) American Film Director, Actor
In politics the middle way is none at all.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Ignorance makes most men go into a political party, and shame keeps them from getting out of it.
—E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (1881–1959) British Politician, Political leader
The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
Did you ever notice that when a politician does get an idea he usually gets it all wrong.
—Don Marquis (1878–1937) American Humorist, Journalist, Author
Rome had Senators too, and that is why it declined.
—Frank Lane (1896–1981) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
In the domain of Political Economy, free scientific inquiry meets not merely the same enemies as in all other domains. The peculiar nature of the material it deals with, summons as foes into the field of battle the most violent, mean and malignant passions of the human breast, the Furies of private interest.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
Politics is organized hatred, that is unity.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it. That we have carried as much political bunk as we have and still survived shows we are a super nation.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
What do you want to be a sailor for? There are greater storms in politics than you will ever find at sea. Piracy, broadsides, blood on the decks. You will find them all in politics.
—David Lloyd George (1863–1945) British Liberal Statesman
In politics… shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
You need to know that a member of Congress who refuses to allow the minimum wage to come up for a vote made more money during last year’s one-month government shutdown than a minimum wage worker makes in an entire year.
—Bill Clinton (b.1946) American Head of State, Lawyer, Public Speaker
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.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
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.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote.
—George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American Drama Critic, Editor
Few businessmen are capable of being in politics, they don’t understand the democratic process, they have neither the tolerance or the depth it takes. Democracy isn’t a business.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
A man who is a politician at forty is a statesman at three score and ten. It is at this age, when he would be too old to be a clerk or a gardener or a police-court magistrate, that he is ripe to govern a country.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Growing older, I have lost the need to be political, which means, in this country, the need to be left. I am driven into grudging toleration of the Conservative Party because it is the party of non-politics, of resistance to politics.
—Kingsley Amis (1922–95) English Novelist, Poet
Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world.
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Lithuanian-American Anarchist, Feminist
An empty stomach is not a good political advisor.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist