quotations about politics
It is always important in matters of high politics to know what you do not know. Those who think they know, but are mistaken, and act upon their mistakes, are the most dangerous people to have in charge.
MARGARET THATCHER
Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World
I tell you folks, all politics is applesauce.
WILL ROGERS
The Illiterate Digest, 1924
Politics is not just about policy and facts, it's also about style and appeal.
ET EDIT
"For Donald Trump, politics is about style and appeal", The Economic Times, May 9, 2016
I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.
BILL CLINTON
speech, March 20, 2008
It is not the principled partisan, however obnoxious he may seem to his opponents, who degrades our public debate, but the preening, self-styled statesman who elevates compromise to a first principle.
TOM DELAY
CNN, June 9, 2006
Fanaticism displays itself in the masses; but the masses were rarely fanaticised; and the crimes ascribed to it were commonly due to the calculations of dispassionate politicians.
LORD ACTON
The History of Freedom in Christianity
They have got a con game going on, a political con game, and you and I are in the middle. It's time for you and me to wake up and start looking at it like it is, and trying to understand it like it is; and then we can deal with it like it is.
MALCOLM X
speech at Cory Methodist Church, Cleveland, Ohio, "The Ballot or the Bullet", April 3, 1964
When you take a stand out of deep conviction, people know. They may not even agree, but they ask, "Do I want someone who is willing to take a hard stand and someone I can trust to do that when the chips are down?" They want that.
BARBARA BOXER
They said that I should lose my ideals and begin to believe in the methods of practical politicians. Now, I have not lost my ideals in the least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my childlike faith in practical politics.
G. K. CHESTERTON
Orthodoxy
The moderate people of every party must combine to support the Government which, on the whole, suits every party best.
WALTER BAGEHOT
The English Constitution
The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary.
WILHELM REICH
The Mass Psychology of Fascism
When all three branches of government treat politics like a game or a reality show, they shouldn't be surprised when voters do as well.
ADAM BUTTON
"Suddenly politics is for serious people with serious ideas", Forex Live, May 6, 2016
I do not believe that any work of art can help but be diminished by its adherence at any cost to a political program ... and not for any other reason than that there is no political program -- any more than there is a theory of tragedy -- which can encompass the complexities of real life.
ARTHUR MILLER
introduction, Collected Plays
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
New Hopes for a Changing World
In the founding era of our country, it was not organized religion but personal faith that brought focus and unified the early leadership--maybe an unspoken faith in God, and certain values that came with that faith. So in that sense, we cannot discount, in my judgment, religious faith in politics.
BILLY GRAHAM
Newsweek, August 14, 2006
There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money ... and I can't remember what the other one is.
F. PAUL WILSON
Implant
I think it's a terrible system, but money in politics is like water running downhill -- it finds its way.
JONATHAN ALTER
book signing at Politics & Prose Bookstore, July 2, 2013
In 2018, the White House is occupied by a man with no evident principles beyond promoting his own brand and chalking up "wins," however he might define them. He's so uninterested in the particulars of governing that he recently told lawmakers that he would sign whatever immigration bill they sent him. How do you negotiate with a chief executive who doesn't know what a good deal is?
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
"The Jell-O President and the Shutdown", New York Times, January 22, 2018
That mysterious independent variable of political calculation, Public Opinion.
THOMAS HUXLEY
"Universities, Actual & Ideal"
When philosophers try to be politicians they generally cease to be philosophers.
WALTER LIPPMANN
A Preface to Politics