Political controls in the sense that we think of bureaus or departments of government can never operate to produce collaboration between groups in the inner wheels of our industrial organization. It must come from inner compulsions and desires.
—William O. Douglas (1898–1980) American Judge
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.
—Pericles (c.490–429 BCE) Athenian Statesman, General
If you allow a political catchword to go on and grow, you will awaken some day to find it standing over you, arbiter of your destiny, against which you are powerless.
—William Graham Sumner (1840–1910) American Polymath, Academic, Historian, Sociologist, Anthropologist
In every election in American history both parties have their cliches. The party that has the cliches that ring true wins.
—Newt Gingrich (b.1943) American Politician
Politics is organized hatred, that is unity.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
When you give power to an executive you do not know who will be filling that position when the time of crisis comes.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
A newspaper reported that I spent $30,000 a year buying Paris clothes and that women hate me for it. I couldn’t spend that much unless I wore sable underwear.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–94 ) American First Lady
It’s a great country, where anybody can grow up to be president… except me.
—Barry Goldwater (1909–98) American Elected Representative, Businessperson, Politician
It seems our fate to be incorrect (look where we live, for example), and in our incorrectness stand.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
The most powerful motivator may not be fear–people go back to bad habits after a heart attack. Could it be proving themselves right?
—Marty Nemko (b.1950) American Career Coach
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 America you can go on the air and kid the politicians, and the politicians can go on the air and kid the people.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
People say I’m indecisive, but I don’t know about that.
—George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American Republican Statesman, 41st President
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
Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote.
—George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American Drama Critic, Editor
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
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
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
Nowhere are prejudices more mistaken for truth, passion for reason and invective for documentation than in politics.
—John Mason Brown (1900–69) American Columnist, Journalist, Author
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
We shall have to fight the politician, who remembers only that the unborn have no votes and that since posterity has done nothing for us we need do nothing for posterity.
—William Motter Inge (1913–73) American Playwright, Novelist
Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
This Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing.
—Harold Wilson British Political Leader
He knows very little of mankind who expects, by any facts or reasoning, to convince a determined party man.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
I am under the impression that in nine out of ten cases I deal with windbags who do not fully realize what they take upon themselves, but who intoxicate themselves with romantic sensations. From a human point of view this is not very interesting to me, nor does it move me profoundly. However, it is immensely moving when a mature man
—Max Weber (1864–1920) German Sociologist
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
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge where there is no river.
—Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) Russian Head of State, Political leader
A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
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
Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.
—Henry Kissinger (b.1923) American Diplomat, Academician
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
A politician is an ass upon which everyone has sat except a man.
—e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter
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
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
No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
The politician who never made a mistake never made a decision.
—John Major (b.1943) British Head of State
There is just one rule for politicians all over the world. Don’t say in Power what you say in Opposition: if you do you only have to carry out what the other fellows have found impossible.
—John Galsworthy (1867–1933) English Novelist, Playwright
The era of the political was one of anomie: crisis, violence, madness and revolution. The era of the trans-political is that of anomaly: an aberration of no consequence, contemporaneous with the event of no consequence.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow (1803–81) English Writer, Traveler
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 most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often and in the loudest voice.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
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 news of any politician’s death should be listed under “Public Improvements.”
—Frank Lane (1896–1981) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
Politics is the diversion of trivial men who, when they succeed at it, become important in the eyes of more trivial men.
—George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American Drama Critic, Editor
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
People that are really weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history.
—Dan Quayle (b.1947) American Head of State, Politician, Elected Rep
You are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on — into the dustbin of history!
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
—Henry Kissinger (b.1923) American Diplomat, Academician
My deepest feeling about politicians is that they are dangerous lunatics to be avoided when possible and carefully humored; people, above all, to whom one must never tell the truth.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
When great questions end, little parties begin.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
My life’s work has been accomplished. I did all that I could.
—Mikhail Gorbachev (b.1931) Soviet Head of State
It is the eternal truth in the political as well as the mystical body, that, where one members suffers, all the members suffer with it.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
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
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
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
Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him.
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
A political organization is a transferable commodity. You could not find a better way of killing virtue than by packing it into one of these contraptions which some gang of thieves is sure to find useful.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
If you can’t stand a little sacrifice and you can’t stand a trip across the desert with limited water, we’re never going to straighten this country out.
—Ross Perot (1930–2019) American Businessman
The first requirement of politics is not intellect or stamina but patience. Politics is a very long run game and the tortoise will usually beat the hare.
—John Major (b.1943) British Head of State
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he has of the principles of counterpoint. Each is a thing used in politics or music which those fellows who practice politics or music manipulate somehow. Show him one and he will deny that it is politics at all. It must be corrupt or he will not recognize it. He has only seen dried figs. He has only thought dried thoughts. A live thought or a real idea is against the rules of his mind.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
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
Great political questions stir the deepest nature of one-half the nation, but they pass far above and over the heads of the other half.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted — in the air. A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards. A liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest — at the command — of his head.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
If you’re sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign.
—George W. Bush (b.1946) American Head of State, Businessperson
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
Diplomacy is living in state.
—Oliver Herford (1863–1935) American Writer, Artist, Illustrator
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
The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
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
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 enemy of the imagination.
—Ian McEwan British Novelist, Short-Story Writer
Heads of state are notoriously ill prepared for their mature careers; think of Adolf Hitler (landscape painter), Ho Chi Minh (seaman), and our own Ronald Reagan.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b.1941) American Social Critic, Essayist
Politics is not an exact science.
—Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) German Chancellor, Prime Minister
Politics doesn’t make strange bedfellows, marriage does.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
Rome had Senators too, and that is why it declined.
—Frank Lane (1896–1981) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
In politics the choice is constantly between two evils.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Political Leader, Writer, Editor, Journalist
We mean by “politics” the people’s business — the most important business there is.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable…the art of the next best.
—Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) German Chancellor, Prime Minister
There is scarcely anything more harmless than political or party malice. It is best to leave it to itself. Opposition and contradiction are the only means of giving it life or duration.
—John Witherspoon (1723-94) Scottish-American Presbyterian Theologian
Some have said that it is not the business of private men to meddle with government, — a bold and dishonest saying, which is fit to come from no mouth but that of a tyrant or a slave. To say that private men have nothing to do with government is to say that private men have nothing to do with their own happiness or misery; that people ought not to concern themselves whether they be naked or clothed, fed or starved, deceived or instructed, protected or destroyed.
—Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcius Cato) (234–149 BCE) Roman Statesman
Religion is organized to satisfy and guide the soul — politics does the same thing for the body.
—Joyce Cary (1888–1957) English Novelist, Artist
If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.
—William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–91) American Military Leader, Businessperson, Educator