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.
—Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
You have to have been a Republican to know how good it is to be a Democrat.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–94 ) American First Lady
Only people who look dull ever get into the House of Commons, and only people who are dull ever succeed there.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
My life’s work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.
—Mikhail Gorbachev (b.1931) Soviet Head of State
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.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
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.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
A politician is an ass upon which everyone has sat except a man.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
I never said all Democrats were saloonkeepers; what I said was all saloonkeepers are Democrats.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Elected Rep, Politician, Reformer, Editor
One can say that three pre-eminent qualities are decisive for the politician: passion, a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of proportion.
—Max Weber (1864–1920) German Sociologist
If ever this free people—if this government itself is ever utterly demoralized, it will come from this incessant human wriggle and struggle for office, which is but a way to live without work.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
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
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.
—Angela Davis (b.1944) American Political Activist, Academic
No man is regular in his attendance at the House of Commons until he is married.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The most important political office is that of the private citizen
—Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Jurist
All conservatives are such from personal defects. They have been effeminated by position or nature, born halt and blind, through luxury of their parents, and can only, like invalids, act on the defensive.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Every politician, when he leaves office, ought to go straight to jail and serve his time.
—U.S. Proverb
The total collapse of the public opinion polls shows that this country is in good health. A country that developed an airtight system of finding out in advance what was in people’s minds would be uninhabitable.
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
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
I would be presumptuous, indeed, to present myself against the distinguished gentlemen to whom you have listened if this were a mere measuring of abilities; but this is not a contest between persons. The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. I come to speak to you in defence of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty
—William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925) American Political leader, Diplomat, Politician
It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
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.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
The mistake a lot of politicians make is in forgetting they’ve been appointed and thinking they’ve been anointed.
—Claude Pepper (1900–89) American Politician
In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
If a large city can, after intense intellectual efforts, choose for its mayor a man who merely will not steal from it, we consider it a triumph of the suffrage.
—Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925) American Encyclopedia Editor, Essayist
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
Rome had Senators too, and that is why it declined.
—Frank Lane (1896–1981) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
It’s clear that something must be done about the effectively disruptive tactics of anarchistic handfuls (at political rallies). Handling the occasional heckler is a storied, valuable art in politics; but a militant group of grubs (have) announced their determination to rape the right of candidates to be heard and of citizens to hear. Far, far too often these stinky finkies succeeded…. Free speech is the first requisite of freedom and a viable, functioning democracy. The exercise of it cannot be at the option of those who think the right to dissent includes the right to destroy.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
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
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.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
I’m not a member of any organized political party, I’m a Democrat!
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
The essential ingredient in politics is timing.
—Pierre Trudeau (1919-2000) Canadian Statesman
The State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions. If they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies.
—Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) British Head of State, Military Leader
Wherever the relevance of speech is at stake, matters become political by definition, for speech is what makes man a political being.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
Lofty posts make great men greater still, and small men much smaller.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
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.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
On the qualities of a Politician: The ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year — and to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.”
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
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 are almost as exciting as war and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics—many times.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
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
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.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
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
In the end, … that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?
—Barack Obama (b.1961) American Head of State, Academic, Politician, Author
The chief element in the art of statesmanship under modern conditions is the ability to elucidate the confused and clamorous interests which converge upon the seat of government. It is an ability to penetrate from the naive self-interest of each group to its permanent and real interest. Statesmanship consists in giving the people not what they want but what they will learn to want.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
The art of governing mankind by deceiving them.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter. Anyone who takes that role must pay a price.
—Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005) American Politician
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
Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politics, and their whole conduct proceeds upon it.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author