Political Thinking Quotes

• I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Thinking, Cynical, Political

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  People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

  Richard Grenier

  Strength, Wisdom, Veterans Day

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• All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.

  George Orwell

  Future, Past, Thinking

  George Orwell, Ian Angus, Sheila Davison (1998). “The Complete Works of George Orwell: I have tried to tell the truth, 1943-1944”

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• I have sworn upon the altar of God Eternal, hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Change, Religious, Men

  Letter to Benjamin Rush, 23 Sept. 1800

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• Hatred is not contained in political thinking. Any hatred worked up against the public enemy is non-political, and always shows some weakness in the internal political situation.

  Francis Parker Yockey

  Thinking, Hatred, Political

  Francis Parker Yockey (2013). “Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics”, p.171, The Palingenesis Project (Wermod and Wermod Publishing Group)

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• I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Men, Faith Religion

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• I have sworn upon the altar of god.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Government, Faith Religion

  Letter to Benjamin Rush, 23 Sept. 1800

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• When the political columnists say 'Every thinking man' they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to 'Every intelligent voter' they mean everybody who is going to vote for them

  Franklin P. Adams

  Witty, Mean, Intelligent

  Nods and Becks (1944) p. 3

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• Vote early and vote often.

  Al Capone

  Witty, Powerful, Humorous

  75 Copy quote

• A brilliant analysis of leadership in democratic, authoritarian, and totalitarian states, Archie Brown's The Myth of the Strong Leader draws on a remarkably wide range of examples and is distinguished by the relevance of its insights and by the precision and clarity of their exposition. It is an absorbing read that deserves to become a modern classic of political thinking.

  Jack F. Matlock, Jr.

  Strong, Thinking, Leader

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• I have written occasionally on links between my scientific work and political thinking, but not much, because the links seem to me abstract and speculative.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Political, Links

  Source: libcom.org

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• I've been a witness to unfairness in society all my life. To the conditions under which my mother worked all her life, working in an industrial weaving shed in the north of England. And it has been this feature of unfairness that has motivated me in all of my political thinking.

  Patrick Stewart

  Mother, Thinking, Political

  Source: time.com

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• Writing recently in the New York Times, David Brooks noted correctly if belatedly that conservatives disdain for liberal intellectuals had slipped into disdain for the educated class as a whole, and worried that the Republican Party was alienating educated voters. I couldn't care less about the future of the Republican Party, but I do care about the quality of political thinking and judgment in the country as a whole.

  Mark Lilla

  Country, New York, Party

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• Totalitarian rule marks the sharpest contrast imaginable with political rule, and ideological thinking is an explicit and direct challenge to political thinking.

  Bernard Crick

  Thinking, Political, Challenges

  Bernard Crick (1993). “In Defense of Politics”, p.34, University of Chicago Press

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• The concept of individual rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it fully - and two hundred years have not been enough for other countries to understand it. But this is the concept to which we owe our lives - the concept which made it possible for us to bring into reality everything of value that any of us did or will achieve or experience.

  Ayn Rand

  Country, Men, Thinking

  Ayn Rand (1988). “The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z”, p.231, Penguin

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• ... the whole of society in Washington is to some degree political. It is like no other capital city known to me, in that political thinking, the whole business, technical and personal, of politics, is not diluted by an equal interest in art, industry, amusement, anything you like. I don't meant that these are non-existent in Washington -- only that they are subdued to the ruling passion.

  Storm Jameson

  Art, Passion, Thinking

  Storm Jameson (2011). “Journey from the North, Volume 2: Autobiography of Storm Jameson”, p.240, A&C Black

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• For William Cecil and others in Elizabeth's Council, whose sense of Catholic conspiracy and threat governed their political thinking, England's security lay in the creation of a united and Protestant British Isles, which could stand alone, ready to resist invaders. Divine providence had set the islands apart from the rest of the world by encircling seas, 'a little world by itself'.

  Susan Brigden

  Thinking, Islands, Sea

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• One of the difficulties of politics is that politicians are shocked by those who are really prepared to let their thinking reach any conclusion. Political thinking consists in deciding upon the conclusion first and then finding good arguments for it. An open mind is considered irresponsible- and perhaps it really is.

  Richard Crossman

  Thinking, Political, Mind

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• Then one day I realized that a false picture of the German camps had been created and that the problem of the concentration camps was a universal one, not just one that could be disposed of by placing it on the doorstep of the National Socialists. The deportees - many of whom were Communists - had been largely responsible for leading international political thinking to such an erroneous conclusion. I suddenly felt that by remaining silent I was an accomplice to a dangerous influence.

  Paul Rassinier

  Thinking, Holocaust, Political

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• The theory of social contracts extends as far back as Plato. However, it was the great 18th century social philosophers John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau who brought the concept of a social contract between citizens and governments sharply into political thinking, paving the way for popular democracy and constitutional republicanism.

  Simon Mainwaring

  Thinking, Government, Political

  "What #OccupyWallStreet Must Ask of Corporations and Themselves" by Simon Mainwaring, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 12, 2011.

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