My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised.
—Jesse Jackson (b.1941) American Baptist Civil Rights Activist, Minister
Nothing can be said about our politics that has not already been said about hemorrhoids.
—Indian Proverb
My brother Bob doesn’t want to be in government—he promised Dad he’d go straight.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
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
Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a practice of tenure in public office.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
He thinks like a Tory, and talks like a Radical, and that’s so important nowadays.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Half a truth is better than no politics.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
This Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.
—Harold Wilson British Political Leader
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
When they call the roll in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer “present” or “not guilty.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Is not every man sometimes a radical in politics? Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner, or before taking their rest; when they are sick, or aged. In the morning, or when their intellect or their conscience has been aroused; when they hear music, or when they read poetry, they are radicals.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Finality is not the language of politics.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
The justification of majority rule in politics is not to be found in its ethical superiority.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
If American politics does not look to you like a joke, a tragic dance; if you have enough blindness left in you, on any plea, on any excuse, to vote for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party (for at present machine and party are one), or for any candidate who does not stand for a new era,—then you yourself pass into the slide of the magic-lantern; you are an exhibit, a quaint product, a curiosity of the American soil. You are part of the problem.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
It is not a case of whether we want to wash our hands of Europe or want to help her to regain her feet. The troubles of Europe have been laid on our doorstep, so to speak, and will plague us, if we do nothing to cure them, whether we like it or not.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
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
It is hard to say why politicians are called servants, unless it is because a good one is hard to find.
—Gerald F. Lieberman
All politics takes place on a slippery slope. The most important four words in politics are “up to a point.”
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer
The one thing sure about politics is that what goes up comes down and what goes down often comes up.
—Richard Nixon (1913–94) American Head of State, Lawyer
A politician weakly and amiably in the right, is no match for a politician tenaciously and pugnaciously in the wrong.—You cannot, by tying an opinion to a man’s tongue, make him the representative of that opinion; and at the close of any battle for principles, his name will be found neither among the dead, nor the wounded, but among the missing.
—Edwin Percy Whipple (1819–86) American Literary Critic
People say I’m indecisive, but I don’t know about that.
—George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American Republican Statesman, 41st President
The first mistake in public business is the going into it.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
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
The proper memory for a politician is one that knows what to remember and what to forget.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Political Leader, Writer, Editor, Journalist
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.
—Unknown
I resent at any time or any place the attitude that the safety of this country depends on any man holding his job. No man has achieved that strength, and this country has not deteriorated to that weakness.
—Owen D. Young (1874–1962) American Businessperson, Lawyer, Diplomat
I despise all adjectives that try to describe people as liberal or conservative, rightist or leftist, as long as they stay in the useful part of the road.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
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.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable…the art of the next best.
—Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) German Chancellor, Prime Minister
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
A sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
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
Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perpetually rejuvenated illusions.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
A politician—one that would circumvent God.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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
Every time we have an election, we get in worse men and the country keeps right on going. Times have proven only one thing and that is you can’t ruin this country even with politics.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
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.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
There are no personal sympathies in politics.
—Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British Head of State
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
There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of can’t and hypocrisy
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Ninety percent of politics is deciding whom to blame.
—Meg Greenfield (1930–99) American Editor, Journalist, Socialite
The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
The Empress is legitimate, my cousin is Republican, Morny is Orleanist, I am a socialist; the only Bonapartist is Persigny, and he is mad.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
The strife of politics tends to unsettle the calmest understanding, and ulcerate the most benevolent heart.—There are no bigotries or absurdities too gross for parties to create or adopt under the stimulus of political passions.
—Edwin Percy Whipple (1819–86) American Literary Critic
But a good patriot, and a true politician, always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his country. A disposition, to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman. Everything else is vulgar in the conception, perilous in the execution.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
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