Quotes About Politics

In the United States the most able men are rarely placed at the head of affairs

To meddle in the government of society and to speak about it is the greatest business and, so to speak, the only pleasure that an American knows.

Pour ma part, je ne saurais concevoir qu'une nation puisse vivre ni surtout prospérer sans une forte centralisation gouvernementale. Mais je pense que la centralisation administrative n'est propre qu'à énerver les peuples qui s'y soumettent, parce qu'elle tend sans cesse à diminuer parmi eux l'esprit de cité.

Parties are an evil inherent in free governments

In politics a community of hatred is almost always the foundation of friendships.

It is difficult to associate a people in the work of government; but it is still more difficult to supply it with experience, and to inspire it with the feelings which it requires in order to govern well.

In the United States, I am not sure that the people would return the men of superior abilities who might solicit its support, but it is certain that men of this description do not come forward.

American priests have realized this truth before everyone else and they allow it to guide their conduct. They saw that they had to forgo religious influence if they wished to win political power and they preferred to lose the support of authority rather than share its changing fortunes.

In the United States, therefore, the mass of the institutions of the country is essentially republican; and in order permanently to destroy the laws which form the basis of the republic, it would be necessary to abolish all the laws at once.

Religion is much more necessary in the republic which they set forth in glowing colors than in the monarchy which they attack; and it is more needed in democratic republics than in any others.

Parties are a necessary evil in free governments.

Parties are a necessary evil in free governments. . . . America has . . . lost the great parties which once divided the nation; and if her happiness is considerably increased, her morality has suffered by their extinction.

The habit of inattention must be considered as the greatest bane of the democratic character

Many of our elected officials have virtually handed the keys to our schools over to corporate interests. Presidential commissions on education are commonly chaired by the executives of large companies.

The difference between a Welfare State and a Benevolent Despot is slight.

Those intellectuals are our natural enemies; the only kind who are worth anything are the musicians and the dancers: they don't insult anybody with their performances, and they neither sing nor dance politics. So I like them; but don't let me hear a word about the rest

It is all about a girl who is more interested in politics than in love... the Russian censors will not let it be published and the world outside will not want it because it is so Russian.

That politicians who smiled at us and kissed our babies blue eyes shining with triumph well knew we were falling into our graves kicked by them as they counted our votes.

Watching my father plan and strategize for the resistance has taught me about trust." She leaned forward. "Personal trust is very different from political trust, my lady. The first thrives on faith. The second requires proof, whether it be upfront or covert." Awkwardly, she patted my hand. "His Majesty has always been a powerful man. Perhaps he has never had to distinguish between the two.

Never underestimate the power of calculated bullying and veiled threats! It's my conviction that, when it comes to politics, a tender conscience can be an inconvenience.

Self-interest usually governed political loyalties.

In my view, sire, anyone who actively campaigns for public office disqualifies himself for holding any office at all!

Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in the hands of politicians.

Son, this is a Washington, D.C. kind of lie. It's when the other person knows you're lying, and also knows you know he knows.