Politics

"Politiikka on lupauksien taidetta. (V. A. Koskenniemi) (SSSK)"

":(Die Politik ist keine exakte Wissenschaft.)"

"A mugwump is a person educated beyond his intellect."

"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."

"Until you've been in politics you've never really been alive it's rough and sometimes it's dirty and it's always hard work and tedious details But, it's the only sport for grownups—all other games are for kids. —Heinlein"

"Politics is the art of the possible."

"Persuade me not; I will make a Star-chamber matter of it."

"Political arguments, in the fullest sense of the word, as they concern the government of a nation, must be, and always have been, of great weight in the consideration of the Court."

"PUSH, n. One of the two things mainly conducive to success, especially in politics. The other is Pull."

"Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage."

"The political activity prevailing in the United States is something one could never understand unless one had seen it. No sooner do you set foot on American soil than you find yourself in a sort of tumult; a confused clamor rises on every side, and a thousand voices are heard at once, each expressing some social requirements. All around you everything is on the move: here the people of a district are assembled to discuss the possibility of building a church; there they are busy choosing a representative; further on, the delegates of a district are hurrying to town to consult about some local improvements; elsewhere it's the village farmers who have left their furrows to discuss the plan for a road or a school."

"Politics makes strange bed-fellows."

"The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency."

"All political power is primarily an illusion…. Illusion. Mirrors and blue smoke, beautiful blue smoke rolling over the surface of highly polished mirrors, first a thin veil of blue smoke, then a thick cloud that suddenly dissolves into wisps of blue smoke, the mirrors catching it all, bouncing it back and forth."

"One cannot look too closely at and weigh in too golden scales the acts of men hot in their political excitement."

"O, that estates, degrees, and offices Were not deriv'd corruptly, and that clear honour Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!"

"I am not a politician, and my other habits air good."

"I am in too high a situation to fear any man or class of men. I thank God I am in a position which puts me above politics."

"Men argue differently, from natural phenomena and political appearances: they have different capacities, different degrees of knowledge, and different intelligence. But the means of information and judging are open to both: each professes to act from his own skill and sagacity; and, therefore, neither needs to communicate to the other."

"The only way you can do that [decrease taxes, balance the budget, and increase military spending] is with mirrors, and that's what it would take."

":(Die Politik ist die Lehre von Moglichen.)"

"Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement. No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity. The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties. Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave and of the character they assume."

"Politics is the practical exercise of the art of self-government, and somebody must attend to it if we are to have self-government; somebody must study it, and learn the art, and exercise patience and sympathy and skill to bring the multitude of opinions and wishes of self-governing people into such order that some prevailing opinion may be expressed and peaceably accepted. Otherwise, confusion will result either in dictatorship or anarchy. The principal ground of reproach against any American citizen should be that he is not a politician. Everyone ought to be, as Lincoln was."

"Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary."

"There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one."

"Politics is a fascinating game, because politics is government. It is the art of government."

"The whole art of politics consists in directing rationally the irrationalities of men."

"Who put up that cage? Who hung it up with bars, doors? Why do those on the inside want to get out? Why do those outside want to get in? What is this crying inside and out all the time? What is this endless, useless beating of baffled wings at these bars, doors, this cage?"

"They are wrong who think that politics is like an ocean voyage or a military campaign, something to be done with some particular end in view, something which leaves off as soon as that end is reached. It is not a public chore, to be got over with. It is a way of life. It is the life of a domesticated political and social creature who is born with a love for public life, with a desire for honor, with a feeling for his fellows; and it lasts as long as need be."

"A political career brings out the basest qualities in human nature."

":A weapon that comes down as still As snowflakes fall upon the sod; But executes a freeman's will, As lightning does the will of God; And from its force, nor doors nor locks Can shield you; 'tis the ballot-box."

"Old politicians chew on wisdom past, And totter on in business to the last."

"Abstain from beans."

"Get thee glass eyes; And, like a scurvy politician, seem To see the things thou dost not."

"Who is the dark horse he has in his stable?"

"The gratitude of place expectants is a lively sense of future favours."

"Politics I conceive to be nothing more than the science of the ordered progress of society along the lines of greatest usefulness and convenience to itself."

"There may be cases in which there is so much of difficulty in knowing where the law stands that we take time to consider, and sometimes doubt much and sometimes differ among ourselves. But I believe every one of the Judges acts upon the principle that he is before man and God in the discharge of his duty, and acts upon his solemn oath, and declares tbe law not according to any political fancy, or for the purposes of serving one party or serving another, but according to the pure conviction of his own mind without looking to any party."

"It cannot but occur to every person's observation, that as long as parties exist in the country (and perhaps it is for the good of the country that parties should exist to a certain degree, because they keep ministers on their guard in their conduct), they will have their friends and adherents. A great political character, who held a high situation in this country some years ago, but who is now dead, used to say that ministers were the better for being now and then a little peppered and salted. And while these parties exist, they will have their friendships and attainments, which will sometimes dispose them to wander from argument to declamation."

"The learned counsel has very properly avoided all political discussions unconnected with the subject, and I shall follow his example. Courts of justice have nothing to do with them."

"The Constitution does not allow reasons of State to influence our judgments: God forbid it should! We must not regard political consequences, how formidable soever they might be: if rebellion was the certain consequence, we are bound to say, "Fiat justitia mat caelum." The Constitution trusts the King with reasons of State and policy; he may stop prosecutions,1 he may pardon offences2; it is his, to judgewhetherthelaworthecriminalshould yield. We have no election."

"Practical politics consists in ignoring facts."

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

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

"Political technology determines political success."

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

"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."

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

"Man is by nature a political animal."

"The pendulum will swing back."