Politics

"If a due participation of office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by death are few; by resignation, none."

"Of the various executive abilities, no one excited more anxious concern than that of placing the interests of our fellow-citizens in the hands of honest men, with understanding sufficient for their stations. No duty is at the same time more difficult to fulfil. The knowledge of character possessed by a single individual is of necessity limited. To seek out the best through the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is sometimes incorrect."

"Skilled to pull wires he baffles nature's hope, who sure intended him to stretch a rope."

"Factions among yourselves; preferring such To offices and honors, as ne'er read The elements of saving policy; But deeply skilled in all the principles That usher to destruction."

"Every time I fill a vacant office I make ten malcontents and one ingrate."

"Those who would treat politics and morality apart will never understand the one or the other."

"Car c'est en famille, ce n'est pas en public, qu'un lave son linge sale."

"Better a hundred times an honest and capable administration of an erroneous policy than a corrupt and incapable administration of a good one."

"One man's diplomacy will have a chance of success only if it is backed by power."

"He who thus considers things in their first growth and origin, whether a state or anything else, will obtain the clearest view of them."

"Patriotism is in political life what faith is in religion."

"All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

"Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end."

"There is only one thing more useful in politics than having the right friends, and that is having the right enemies."

"Man is by nature a political animal."

"It is necessary therefore that the person who is to study, with any tolerable chance of profit, the principles of nobleness and justice and politics generally, should have received a good moral training. For our data here are moral judgments, and if a man knows what it is right to do, he does not require a formal reason. And a person that has been thus trained, either possesses these first principles already, or can easily acquire them. As for him who neither possesses nor can acquire them, let him take to heart the words of Hesiod:"

"‘He is the best of all who thinks for himself in all things. He, too, is good who takes advice from a wiser (person). But he who neither thinks for himself, nor lays to heart another's wisdom, this is a useless man.’"

"The shifty language of politics,... that strange language full of Maya and falsities of self-illusion and deliberate delusion of others, which almost immediately turns all true and vivid phrases into a jargon, so that men may fight in a cloud of words without any clear sense of the thing they are battling for...."

"“My only remaining question is, why an honest pimp, con man, fraud, and kidnapper like yourself would get involved in something as nasty as large-scale corporate activity?” “The money was good.” “Oh, but if that’s your excuse, what will be next? Politics?”"

"POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."

"POLITICS, n. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage."

"PRESIDENCY, n. The greased pig in the field game of American politics."

"Political technology determines political success."

"Sound doctrine is sound politics."

"In politics, you have your word and your friends; go back on either and you're dead."

"In volunteer politics, a builder can build faster than a destroyer can destroy."

"In politics, nothing moves unless it's pushed."

"Moral outrage is the most powerful motivating force in politics."

"…even the best politics will not and cannot provide the fullness of hope we need. Politics matters, of course, but a hope based in politics, regardless of right or left, will always disappoint. …A people given over to wickedness will ruin even the best political system. Nor can we vote our way to righteousness; politics cannot make us love our neighbors as ourselves. From newly minted college Marxists to MAGA social media, many of those who are investing their hearts and hopes in politics are looking for things that politics cannot give to them. Politics will never love them back, and the things that politics can sometimes deliver, such as vengeance and a sense of triumph over one’s perceived enemies, are hardly the foundations of lasting personal happiness, living the good life, and building a flourishing society. Those who trust in politics will be distraught when the political winds turn against them, even if little to nothing changes in their day-to-day lives."

"Politics is not an exact science."

"Die Politik ist die Lehre vom Möglichen."

"Have you ever seen a candidate talking to a rich person on television?"

"Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair."

"An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought."

"The pendulum will swing back."

"Aline and I have travelled a very long, very hard road together, from our working class homes in rural Quebec to the palaces of London, Paris, Moscow, and Beijing. Politics was the route, public service the reward."

"Politics and Religion are obsolete. The time has come for Science and Spirituality."

"We shouldn’t be playing politics. We should be focusing on what’s important."

"A lifetime spent in and out of embassies has left me half convinced that lies are the normal coinage of human intercourse."

"Lucien B. Fenimore, after three hundred years of politics, no longer believed in coincidence. He didn’t believe in accidental accidents either."

"In my whole legal career I have not met worse types of criminals than in politics."

"Finality is not the language of politics."

"Politicians are like nappies, they should be changed regularly and for the same reason."

"The true destiny of America is religious, not political: it is spiritual, not physical."

"Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it."

"That is simple, my friend. It is because Politics is more difficult than physics."

"Politics should be the part-time profession of every citizen."

"Soloviev: All liberal, capitalistic, socialistic movements are directed by Jews. We must expose them. They are the anti-christ!"

"Researcher: In almost every country there are people trying to seize political power! What is the easy way?"

"Whether or not our position fairly can be charged as “apolitical” depends entirely upon how one defines “political.” If “political” be taken in the narrow sense, as signifying those means and methods the world regularly accepts as normative for its doing of politics, then the position of me and mine clearly and is that of apoliticism. If, however, “political” be understood in the broad, etymological sense, as identifying whatever actions have public effect upon the life of the “city” (polis), then there are no grounds for accusing either “me” or any of “mine” of advocating apoliticism."