quotations about politics
Politics ... regarded as the study and pursuit of the true, enduring good of a community, as the application of great and unchangeable principles to public affairs, is a noble sphere of thought and action; but politics, in its common sense, or considered as the invention of temporary shifts, as the playing of a subtle game, as the tactics of party for gaining power and the spoils of office, and for elevating one set of men above another, is a paltry and debasing concern.
WILLIAM E. CHANNING
Thoughts
Politics is a far more intellectual business than is often realized. You may think: Well, if it's simplicity that's required, you don't need a whole lot of detail. Wrong. The simplicity is not born of superficial analysis. It is simple precisely because it is the product of being worked through.
TONY BLAIR
A Journey: My Political Life
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
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
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
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
Not to have a correct political point of view is like having no soul.
MAO ZEDONG
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong
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
A politician don't steal elections, he pays for 'em.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
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
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
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
Under every stone lurks a politician.
ARISTOPHANES
Thesmophoriazusae
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
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
The politician is a biped; but he is probably an aberrant form of hyena.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
Politics is the art of trying to bring about the possible, the doable and achieving the most sensible elements of our mutually shared aspirations. It is in this sense that politics is much more than a necessary evil; it also can be a liberating activity and a necessary good.
THOMAS E. CRONIN
"Giving up on politics is not an option", The Denver Post, April 30, 2016
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
The surest way for those who want to rule is praising moderation, talking of peace and quiet.
SENECA
Oedipus
Politics is about how many friends, not enemies, you can make.
BILL GINDLESPERGER
"Politics is about how many friends, not enemies, you can make", Public Opinion, May 6, 2016