quotations about politics
Maybe the critics are right. Maybe there's no escaping our great political divide, an endless clash of armies, and any attempts to alter the rules of engagement are futile. Or maybe the trivialization of politics has reached a point of no return, so that most people see it as just one more diversion, a sport, with politicians our paunch-bellied gladiators and those who bother to pay attention just fans on the sidelines: We paint our faces red or blue and cheer our side and boo their side, and if it takes a late hit or cheap shot to beat the other team, so be it, for winning is all that matters. But I don't think so.
BARACK OBAMA
The Audacity of Hope
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
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
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
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
Politics: the art of appearing candid and completely open while concealing as much as possible.
FRANK HERBERT
Chapterhouse: Dune
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
Please, I'm a politician's wife. I have a set of my own.
LAUREN BACALL
My Fellow Americans
In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.
MARGARET THATCHER
speech at Royal Albert Hall, May 20, 1965
We assume that politicians are without honor. We read their statements trying to crack the code. The scandals of their politics: not so much that men in high places lie, only that they do so with such indifference, so endlessly, still expecting to be believed.
ADRIENNE RICH
"Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying", On Lies, Secrets, and Silence
All the politics in the world are nothing else but a kind of analysis of the quantity of probability in casual events, and a good politician signifies no more but one who is dexterous at such calculations.
JOHN ARBUTHNOT
"Of the Hazards of Game", A Supplement to the Miscellaneous Works of the Late Dr. Arbuthnot
A typical vice of American politics -- the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues, and the announcement of radical policies with much sound and fury, and at the same time with a cautious accompaniment of weasel phrases each of which sucks the meat out of the preceding statement.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
The Outlook, July 27, 1912
When you start looking for some politician's footprints on the sands of time, steer for the mudholes first.
ROBERT ELLIOTT GONZALES
Poems and Paragraphs
Sure, in our system of elections, politicians need to be ambitious and calculating -- calculating how they might win but, more important, how they can advance the public good. They have to have great courage to get up on the public stage and try to get our attention. Of course, some of what they do in a campaign is acting, posturing or showmanship. Politics is always an admixture of personal striving and deliberation over substantive policy differences.
THOMAS E. CRONIN
"Giving up on politics is not an option", The Denver Post, April 30, 2016
I think politics is too important to be left to politicians.
CRAIG BROWN
The Independent, 2013