Quotes about politics

"In politics, yesterday's lie is attacked only to flatter today's."

Rostand, Jean on politics   

"In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day."

Rostand, Jean on politics   

"We have never yet had a labor Government that knew what taking power really means; they always act like second-class citizens."

Russell, Dora on politics   

"To know your place is a good idea in politics. That is not to say stay in your place or hang on to your place, because ambition or boredom may dictate upward or downward mobility, but a sense of place -- a feel for one's own position in the control room -- is useful in gauging what you should try to do."

Safire, William on politics   

"The lounge of the main hotel is full of jollity, with large comfortable men sitting in braces; the bar is packed with talkative intellectuals, full of witty disloyalties. The next week the main hotel is suddenly full of dinner-jackets and large hats. The girls are dressed as if for a weekend in the country. When one of the great men of the party comes through, the crowd edges respectfully away, murmuring loyal noises."

Sampson, Anthony on politics   

"The courts of kings are full of people, but empty of friends."

Seneca on politics   

"Get thee glass eyes, and like a scurvy politician, seem to see the things thou dost not."

Shakespeare, William on politics
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"A politician is one that would circumvent God."

Shakespeare, William on politics
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"There have been many great men that have flattered the people who never loved them."

Shakespeare, William on politics   

"We mustn't be stiff and stand-off, you know. We must be thoroughly democratic, and patronize everybody without distinction of class."

Shaw, George Bernard on politics   

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"He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career."

Shaw, George Bernard on politics   

"If I was forced to choose between the penitentiary and White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you."

Sherman, William T. on politics   

"I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live."

Socrates on politics
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"A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth."

Stevenson, Adlai E. on politics   

"We mean by politics the people's business -- the most important business there is."

Stevenson, Adlai E. on politics   

"Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse."

Stevenson, Adlai E. on politics   

"Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary."

Stevenson, Robert Louis on politics   

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"In the school of political projectors, I was but ill entertained, the professors appearing, in my judgment, wholly out of their senses; which is a scene that never fails to make me melancholy. These unhappy people were proposing schemes for persuading monarchs to choose favorites upon the score of their wisdom, capacity, and virtue; of teaching ministers to consult the public good; of rewarding merit, great abilities, and eminent services, of instructing princes to know their true interest, by placing it on the same foundation with that of their people; of choosing for employment persons qualified to exercise them; with many other wild impossible chimeras, that never entered before into the heart of man to conceive; and confirmed in me the old observation, that there is nothing so extravagant and irrational which some philosophers have not maintained for truth."

Swift, Jonathan on politics   

"The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance and never to keep his work."

Swift, Jonathan on politics   

"Politics, when I am in it, it makes me sick."

Taft, William Howard on politics   

"I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph."

Thatcher, Margaret on politics   

"Politics is the gizzard of society, full of gut and gravel."

Thoreau, Henry David on politics   

"In politics... shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships."

Tocqueville, Alexis De on politics
3 fans of this quote   

"Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working Americans. It is the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them."

Tomlin, Lily on politics   

"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!"

Trotsky, Leon on politics   

"The essential ingredient in politics is timing."

Trudeau, Pierre Elliott on politics   

"Within the first few months I discovered that being president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed."

Truman, Harry S on politics   

"When a leader is in the Democratic Party he is a boss, and when he is in the Republican Party he is a leader."

Truman, Harry S on politics   

"A politician is a man who understands government and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for fifteen years."

Truman, Harry S on politics   

"It takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for fifteen years."

Truman, Harry S on politics   

"I always considered statesmen to be more expendable than soldiers."

Truman, Harry S on politics   

"When the doctrine of allegiance to party can utterly up-end a man's moral constitution and make a temporary fool of him besides, what excuse are you going to offer for preaching it, teaching it, extending it, perpetuating it? Shall you say, the best good of the country demands allegiance to party? Shall you also say it demands that a man kick his truth and his conscience into the gutter, and become a mouthing lunatic, besides?"

Twain, Mark on politics   

"In statesmanship get the formalities right, never mind about the moralities."

Twain, Mark on politics   

"Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can."

Twain, Mark on politics   

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."

Twain, Mark on politics
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"I don't care who does the electing as long as I get to do the nominating."

Tweed, Boss on politics   

"A recent survey was said to prove that the people we Americans most admire are our politicians and doctors. I don't believe it. They are simply the people we are most afraid of. And with the most reason."

Unknown, Source on politics   

"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, Source on politics   

"Nothing can be said about our politics that has not already been said about hemorrhoids."

Unknown, Source on politics   

"Politicians should never put themselves first: governments should put people first and all of us should put our country first."

Unknown, Source on politics