Quotes about politics

"The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society."

Marx, Karl on politics   

"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."

Marx, Karl on politics   

"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."

Marx, Karl on politics   

"It is unfair to expect a politician to live in private up to the statements he makes in public."

Maugham, W. Somerset on politics   

"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."

Maugham, W. Somerset on politics   

"The two-party system has given this country the war of Lyndon Johnson, the Watergate of Nixon, and the incompetence of Carter. Saying we should keep the two-party system simply because it is working is like saying the Titanic voyage was a success because a few people survived on life-rafts."

Mccarthy, Eugene J. on politics   

"One thing about a pig, he thinks he's warm if his nose is warm. I saw a bunch of pigs one time that had frozen together in a rosette, each one's nose tucked under the rump of the one in front. We have a lot of pigs in politics."

Mccarthy, Eugene J. on politics   

"It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember."

Mccarthy, Eugene J. on politics   

"In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons."

Mccarthy, Mary on politics   

"Politics is the enemy of the imagination."

Mcewan, Ian on politics   

"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."

Mcluhan, Marshall on politics   

"Nothing is so abject and pathetic as a politician who has lost his job, save only a retired stud-horse."

Mencken, H. L. on politics   

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and Hence Clamorous To Be Led To Safety] by an endless series of hobgoblins."

Mencken, H. L. on politics   

"A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar."

Mencken, H. L. on politics   

"A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life."

Mill, John Stuart on politics   

"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."

Miller, Henry on politics
3 fans of this quote   

"Although he's regularly asked to do so, God does not take sides in American politics."

Mitchell, George J. on politics   

"Political image is like mixing cement. When it's wet, you can move it around and shape it, but at some point it hardens and there's almost nothing you can do to reshape it."

Mondale, Walter F. on politics   

"Hell hath no fury like a crooked politician denied his cut."

Montalbano, Benjamin J. on politics   

"In politics the choice is constantly between two evils."

Morley, John on politics   

"We all know that Prime Ministers are wedded to the truth, but like other wedded couples they sometimes live apart."

Munro, Hector Hugh on politics   

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"When you've got them by their wallets, their hearts and minds will follow."

Naito, Fern on politics   

"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 III on politics   

"Whether elected or appointed he considers himself the Lord's anointed, and indeed the ointment lingers on him so thick you can't get your fingers on him."

Nash, Ogden on politics   

"Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote."

Nathan, George Jean on politics
4 fans of this quote   

"The newspaper reader says: this party will ruin itself if it makes errors like this. My higher politics says: a party which makes errors like this is already finished -- it is no longer secure in its instincts."

Nietzsche, Friedrich on politics   

"Nobody is a friend of ours. Let's face it."

Nixon, Richard M. on politics   

"I played by the rules of politics as I found them."

Nixon, Richard M. on politics   

"I am not a crook."

Nixon, Richard M. on politics   

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"The one thing sure about politics is that what goes up comes down and what goes down often comes up."

Nixon, Richard M. on politics   

"It is far easier for the proverbial camel to pass through the needle's eye, hump and all, than for an erstwhile colonial administration to give sound and honest counsel of a political nature to its liberated territory."

Nkrumah, Kwame on politics   

"Sincerity and competence is a strong combination. In politics, it is everything."

Noonan, Peggy on politics   

"Don't fall in love with politicians, they're all a disappointment. They can't help it, they just are."

Noonan, Peggy on politics   

"Beware the politically obsessed. They are often bright and interesting, but they have something missing in their natures; there is a hole, an empty place, and they use politics to fill it up. It leaves them somehow misshapen."

Noonan, Peggy on politics   

"The right man, in the right place, at the right time, can steal millions."

Nunn, Gregory on politics   

"You have to have been a Republican to know how good it is to be a Democrat."

Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy on politics   

"Politics are for foreigners with their endless wrongs and paltry rights. Politics are a lousy way to get things done. Politics are, like God's infinite mercy, a last resort."

O'Rourke, P. J. on politics   

"Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible."

Orwell, George on politics   

"Politics is the science of urgencies."

Parker, Theodore on politics   

"In politics people give you what they think you deserve and deny you what they think you want."

Parkinson, Cecil on politics