Quotes About Politics

It is in the light of our beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality that we formulate our conceptions of right and wrong that we frame our conduct, not only in the relations of private life, but also in the sphere of politics and economics. So far from being irrelevant, our metaphysical beliefs are the finally determining factor in all our actions.

nationalism will always produce at least one war each generation. It has done in the past, and I suppose we can rely on it to do the same in the future.

It is in the light of our beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality that we formulate our conceptions of right and wrong; and it is in the light of our conceptions of right and wrong that we frame our conduct, not only in the relations of private life, but also in the sphere of politics and economics. So far from being irrelevant, our metaphysical beliefs are the finally determining factor in all our actions.

If you believe in democracy, make arrangements to distribute property as widely as possible.

At ordinary times, then, we are perfectly certain that men are not equal. But when, in a democratic country, we think or act politically we are no less certain that men are equal. Or at any rate—which comes to the same thing in practice—we behave as though we were certain of men's equality.

Alas, higher education is not necessarily a guarantee of higher virtue, or higher political wisdom.

The politics of those whose goal is beyond time are always pacific; it is the idolaters of past and future, of reactionary memory and Utopian dream, who do the persecuting and make the wars. Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, 1945

Podría haber y, a mi juicio, debería haber leyes que impidieran a los candidatos, no solamente gastar más que determinada cantidad en sus campañas electorales, sino también recurrir a esa especie de propaganda antirracional que convierte en disparate todo el procedimiento democrático.

The Machiavelli of the 20th century will be an advertising man, his Prince , a textbook of the art and science of fooling all the people all the time.

The political merchandisers appeal only to the weaknesses of voters, never to their potential strength. They make no attempt to educate the masses into becoming fit for self-government; they are content merely to manipulate and exploit them. For this purpose all the resources of psychology and the social sciences are mobilized and set

Ordinary men, we have seen, are not much interested in any political problems which do not immediately affect themselves.

Only the most ingeniously optimistic, the most wilfully blind to the facts of history and psychology, can believe that paper guarantees of liberty - guarantees wholly unsupported by the realities of political and economic power - will be scrupulously respected by those who have known only the facts of governmental omnipotence on the one hand and, on the other, of mass dependence upon, and consequently subservience to, the state and its representatives.

The bias of the headlines, the systematic one-sidedness of the reporting and the commentaries, the catchwords and slogans instead of argument. No serious appeal to reason. Instead, a systematic effort to install conditioned reflexes int eh minds of the voters -- and, for the rest, crime, divorce, anecdotes, twaddle, anything to keep them distracted, anything to prevent them from thinking.

Can we therefore be surprised if political action, undertaken, in all too many cases, not for the public good, but solely or at least primarily to gratify the power lusts of bad men, should prove so often either self-stultifying or downright disastrous?

Jefferson dijo: Si una nación espera ser ignorante y libre, espera algo que nunca fue ni nunca será...

La política de aquellos cuya meta está más allá del tiempo es siempre pacífica; son los idólatras del pasado y el futuro, del recuerdo reaccionario y del sueño utópico, los que desencadenan las persecuciones y las guerras.

But the power problem has its roots in anatomy and biochemistry and temperament. Power has to be curbed on the legal and political levels; that's obvious. But it's also obvious that there must be prevention on the individual level. On the level of instinct and emotion, on the level of the glands and the viscera, the muscles and the blood. If I can ever find the time, I'd like to write a little book on human physiology in relation to ethics, religion, politics and law.

The philosophy that rationalizes power politics and justifies war and military training is always (whatever the official religion of the politicians and war makers) some wildly unrealistic doctrine of national, racial or ideological idolatry, having, as its inevitable corollaries, the notions of Herrenvolk and "the lesser breeds without the Law.

Los mayores triunfos de la propaganda se han logrado, no haciendo algo, sino impidiendo que ese algo se haga

All that is needed is money and a candidate who can be coached to look sincere. Political principles and plans for specific action have come to lose most of their importance. The personality of the candidate, the way he is projected by the advertising experts, are the things that really matter.

Political liberty's a swindle because a man doesn't spend his time being political. He spends it sleeping, eating, amusing himself a little and working?—mostly working. When they'd got all the political liberty they wanted?—or found they didn't want?—they began to understand this.

No se corre mucho riesgo apostando a que, dentro de veinte años, todos los países excesivamente poblados y poco desarrollados del mundo estarán bajo una u otra forma de gobierno totalitario, probablemente del Partido Comunista. ¿Cómo

tratemos de imaginarnos lo que será un mitin político del futuro. El candidato (si es que cabe hablar todavía de candidatos) o el representante nombrado por la oligarquía gobernante, pronunciará su discurso para que todos lo oigan.

The philosophy that rationalizes power politics and justifies war and military training is always (whatever the religion of the politicians and the war makers) some wildly unrealistic doctrine of national, racial, or ideological idolatry, having, as inevitable corollaries the notions of Herrenvolk and "lesser breeds without the law.