Politics Quotes

• 

  Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.

  Groucho Marx

  Art, Freedom, Political Will

  231 Copy quote

• Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, War, Party

  Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (222), 1956.

  85 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.

  Plato

  Government, Political, Fool

  707 Copy quote

• Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Success, Education, Real

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1938, Volume 7”, p.538, Best Books on

  245 Copy quote

  Show source

• What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else.

  Tom Clancy

  Government, Libertarian Party, People

  "Kudlow & Cramer" Interview, September 02, 2003.

  36 Copy quote

  Show source

• You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer.

  Winston Churchill

  Government, Conservative, Rich

  83 Copy quote

• No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic.

  A. J. P. Taylor

  Peace, War, Political

  68 Copy quote

• One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

  Plato

  Plato, War, Government

  290 Copy quote

• Politics is organized hatred, that is unity.

  John Jay Chapman

  Hatred, Unity, Politician

  14 Copy quote

• One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don't go into government.

  Donald Trump

  Success, Business, Keys

  "Less Than Artful Choices: Narcissistic Personality Disorder According to Donald Trump" by Maria Konnikova, bigthink.com. 2017.

  41 Copy quote

  Show source

• If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Determination, Party, Political

  Eisenhower, Dwight D (1958). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1956”, p.281, Best Books on

  687 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  George Jean Nathan

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Political

  99 Copy quote

• The progress of evolution from President Washington to President Grant was alone evidence to upset Darwin.

  Henry Adams

  Political, Upset, Progress

  The Education of Henry Adams ch. 17 (1907)

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perennially rejuvenated illusions.

  Albert Einstein

  Swings, Anarchy, Illusion

  Albert Einstein (2013). “Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives”, p.38, Princeton University Press

  44 Copy quote

  Show source

• The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.

  Adolf Hitler

  Children, Government, Long

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  237 Copy quote

  Show source

• A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.

  Winston Churchill

  Funny, Humorous, Next Week

  In B. Adler Churchill Wit (1965) p. 4

  89 Copy quote

  Show source

• What this country needs is more unemployed politicians.

  Angela Davis

  Country, Humor, Political

  166 Copy quote
• 

  The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.29, Vintage

  183 Copy quote

  Show source

• The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time.

  Franklin P. Adams

  Inspirational, Country, Believe

  Nods and Becks (1944) p. 74

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

  John F. Kennedy

  Christian, Peace, War

  Kennedy, John F. (1963). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962”, p.163, Best Books on

  132 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.

  John Quincy Adams

  Patriotic, Reflection, Political Will

  "American Prohibition Year Book, Volumes 10-12" (p. 111), 1910.

  140 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.

  Stewart Udall

  Confused, Power, Greatness

  49 Copy quote

• When politicians deny anything fiercely, there is a good chance that it will happen.

  Semir Zeki

  Chance, Politician, Deny

  9 Copy quote

• Take our politicians: they're a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of cliches.

  Saul Bellow

  School, Firsts, Debate

  "The Portable Curmudgeon". Book by Jon Winokur, p. 219, 1987.

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

  Gore Vidal

  Communication, Cities, People

  Gore Vidal (2004). “Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia”, p.52, CLAIRVIEW BOOKS

  54 Copy quote

  Show source