POLITICS QUOTES VIII

quotations about politics

It is a maxim, founded on the universal experience of mankind, that no nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest; and no prudent statesman or politician will venture to depart from it.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

letter to Henry Laurens, November 14, 1778

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Not to have a correct political point of view is like having no soul.

MAO ZEDONG

Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong

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I had discovered long ago the first lesson of political courage: to think anew. I had then learned the second: to be prepared to lead and to decide. I was now studying the third: how to take the calculated risk. I was going to alienate some people, like it or not. The moment you decide, you divide.

TONY BLAIR

A Journey: My Political Life


When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it.

G. K. CHESTERTON

Illustrated London News, April 6, 1918

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The acid test of politics is not what you say at the hustings, but what you actually do in government.

MARGARET THATCHER

speech to Scottish Conservative Party Conference, May 12, 1979

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Politics begin where the masses are, not where there are thousands, but where there are millions, that is where serious politics begin.

VLADIMIR LENIN

Report to Seventh Congress of the Russian Communist Party, March 7, 1918

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Guess what -- politics is hard. Even if you're a celebrity with an unparalleled ability to garner media attention, you can't just blow in to a process you've never participated in before, hire a bunch of people who don't have much experience in it either, believe that big rallies are a substitute for careful organizing, and think you're going to walk away with a victory.

PAUL WALDMAN

"Donald Trump is shocked to learn that politics is complicated", The Washington Post, April 13, 2016


There is one class of men who from time to time have taken a keen and practical interest in the constitution of the Family, and they are the Statesmen. They have realized how intimately the welfare of the State depends upon the influence and nature of the Families from which it is constituted; and they have endeavoured that the State in turn should mould and influence the Family to its own purposes.

HELEN DENDY BOSANQUET

The Family

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Under every stone lurks a politician.

ARISTOPHANES

Thesmophoriazusae

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Politics ... was at least half a question of proper stage management. And the higher the stakes, the more critical that management became.

DAVID WEBER

By Schism Rent Asunder

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To serve as prime minister while being too mindful of the approval rating is like serving as a prime minister on a roller coaster. What is important, I believe, is that I really act on promises that I make and leave results.

SHINZO ABE

Talk Asia, April 30, 2007

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The politician is a biped; but he is probably an aberrant form of hyena.

ABRAHAM MILLER

Unmoral Maxims

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In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought

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A politician don't steal elections, he pays for 'em.

KEN ALSTAD

Savvy Sayin's

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The main mark of modern governments is that we do not know who governs, de facto any more than de jure. We see the politician and not his backer; still less the backer of the backer; or, what is most important of all, the banker of the backer.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien

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I have always believed that politics is first and foremost about ideas; Without a powerful commitment to goals and values, governments are rudderless and ineffective, however large their majorities.

TONY BLAIR

The Third Way


All that I grasped was that to repeat what everybody else was thinking was, in politics, the mark not of an inferior but of a superior mind.

MARCEL PROUST

Within a Budding Grove

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Out of politics comes more uproar than progress. It is indeed surprising how little, comparatively, this noisy department of human affairs contributes to the world's prosperity. Political commotions upon the grandest scale, political events of astounding suddenness, political characters of the greatest ability, abound, but still, permanent results are rare, and we look in vain for a measure of public good corresponding in extent to the hideous rout which ushers it in. Progress but turns upon its pillow, and goes to sleep again.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought

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The course of a great statesman resembles that of navigable rivers, avoiding immovable obstacles with noble bends of concession, seeking the broad levels of opinion on which men soonest settle and longest dwell, following and marking the almost imperceptible slopes of national tendency, yet always aiming at direct advances, always recruited from sources nearer heaven, and sometimes bursting open paths of progress and fruitful human commerce through what seem the eternal barriers of both.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

"Abraham Lincoln", Political Essays

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We need more of the Office Desk and less of the Show Window in politics. Let men in office substitute the midnight oil for the limelight.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

Have Faith in Massachusetts

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