Quotes About Politics

I have been unable to save much money in my life. I have been in politics, and in politics an honest man does not get rich. -Sam Rayburn (whose savings at his death totaled $15,000)

In later years, when Lady Bird Johnson would talk about the time that her husband had been a senator, she would sometimes say, those were the happiest twelve years of our lives. Those years had been happy - and now they were over. The Senate had been Lyndon Johnson's home. Now he had left it.

Discovering the inapplicability of Judeo-Christian morality in certain circumstances involving affairs of state can be searing. The rare individuals who have recognized the necessity of violating such morality, acted accordingly, and taken responsibility for their actions are among the most necessary leaders for their countries, even as they have caused great unease .. - In Defense of Henry Kissinger, The Atlantic 2013 May http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/p...

The age of comparative anarchy is upon us.

state's position on the map is the first thing that defines it, more than its governing philosophy even.

Likewise, democracy in Saudi Arabia is potentially our enemy.

But in Jordan, it is hard to imagine a more moderate and pro-Western regime than the current undemocratic monarchy.

keep in mind always Isaiah Berlin's admonition from his celebrated lecture delivered in 1953, and published the following year under the title "Historical Inevitability," in which he condemns as immoral and cowardly the belief that vast impersonal forces such as geography, the environment, and ethnic characteristics determine our lives and the direction of world politics.

simply because a nation is a democracy does not mean that its foreign policy will necessarily turn out to be better or more enlightened than that of a dictatorship.

Democracy and morality are simply not synonymous

Croatia and Serbia will always seek to advance the interests of their ethnic compatriots in Bosnia, at the expense of each other and of the Bosnian Muslims, no matter who is in charge, democrat or autocrat. But

Realism is alien to the American tradition

You will see, philosophical values will fade away in your country, too. To advance themselves, politicians will increasingly claim beliefs that they don't actually possess. Values are a reflection of the soul. And as souls fade, people no longer need values. Souls fade gradually because of the substitution of the inner imagination by technology: smartphones, intelligent toys, the array of electronics at malls, all make soulful intelligence less necessary.

High-quality national surveys of high school seniors confirm that kids from less educated homes are less knowledgeable about and interested in politics, less likely to trust the government, less likely to vote, and much less likely to be civically engaged in local affairs than their counterparts from college-educated homes.

politicians were prisoners of misguided

Government isn't about religion or signs or symbols… It's about power and control.

You don't correct a president. You merely compliment them on their wisdom in seeking your counsel.

Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., the summer I turned

A Prince asked the dying spanish statesman, Does your Excellency forgive all your enemies? I do not have to forgive all my enemies, answered the stateman, I have had them all shot.

Nothing is stable in the realm of power, and even closest of friends can be transformed into the worst of enemies.

Learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.

Every time I bestow a vacant office I make a hundred discontented persons and one ingrate. Louis XIV, 1638-1715

Never show anger, ill temper, or vengefulness, all disruptive emotions that will make people defensive. In the politics of large groups, welcome adversity as a chance to show the charming qualities of magnanimity and poise. Let others get flustered and upset—the contrast will redound to your favor. Never whine, never complain, never try to justify yourself.

On July 2, 1960, a few weeks before that year's Democratic National Convention, former President Harry Truman publicly stated that John F Kennedy—who had won enough delegates to be chosen his party's candidate for the presidency—was too young and inexperienced for the job.