Quotes About Faction

At the slightest stress, human beings seemed to divide themselves into antagonistic groups.

What's a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority.

'A Spy in the House', the first of Y. S. Lee's 'The Agency' novels, is pure confection, an historical romp through England at the height of The Great Stink that imagines a secret spy ring for women tucked away where few notice but powerful factions clamor for their services.

Bill Clinton and Barack Obama represented somewhat different party factions, but they both embodied wonkery, a vision of competence and expertise governing to some extent above ideology, in which there are assumed to be 'correct answers' to policy dilemmas that a disinterested observer could acknowledge and the right technocrat achieve.

Conservatives must avoid the siren song of schism, or all is lost.

Adam Smith declared "the good temper and moderation of contending factions" to be "the most essential circumstance in the public morals of a free people."51 But what good temper or moderation can be expected when a major segment of the population becomes convinced that "the system is rigged" against them and morality is just a giant fraud?

Adam Smith declared "the good temper and moderation of contending factions" to be "the most essential circumstance in the public morals of a free people." But what good temper or moderation can be expected when a major segment of the population becomes convinced that "the system is rigged" against them and morality is just a giant fraud?

The goodness of the land favored the enrichment of particular individuals, and thus created faction which proved a fertile source of ruin. It also invited invasion. [5] Accordingly Attica,5a from the poverty of its soil enjoying from a very remote period freedom from faction, [6] never changed its inhabitants. And here is no minor example of my assertion that the migrations were the cause of there being no correspondent growth in other parts.

Accordingly Attica, from the poverty of its soil enjoying from a very remote period freedom from faction

Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

Parties on the back of Parties, at war with the world and with each other.

The most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property.

If this had been France, and the Queen had been Louis XIV, it would have been done by now-but it was England, Parliament had its knobby fingers around the Monarch's throat, and Whigs and Tories were joined in an eternal shin-kicking contest to determine which faction should have the honor of throttling her Majesty, and how hard.

In democratic states, the only governments founded on justice, it sometimes happens that a faction usurps power; then the whole rises up, and the necessary vindication of its right may go so far as armed conflict.

As modern tyrannies are swept away (and every honest heart delights), the quick-thinking servants of the world's great powers still proffer plans to intervene, to jostle, scheme and sponsor factions that they barely understand.

We have to remember that Xi, head of a divided Communist Party, has no faction he can call his own. People often say he heads the "Princelings," but that term merely describes the "second Red generation" or "Red Nobility": the sons and daughters of either former leaders or current serving high officials.

Some believe his political vulnerabilities have not only driven him into the arms of Mao but also the clutches of the country's generals and admirals, who run what may effectively be the Party's largest and most powerful faction, the People's Liberation Army. Indeed, some, like veteran China watcher Willy Lam, believe the military is now Xi Jinping's faction.

The most intense hatreds are not between political parties but within them.

Faction seldom leaves a man honest, however it might find him.

A true party-man hates and despises candour.

In the US, there is basically one party - the business party. It has two factions, called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies. By and large, I am opposed to these policies. As is most of the population.

A union is only as strong as its weakest member. Once there is dissension the employer senses it and takes advantage of it. Once you allow dissension and rebel factions to exist you are on the way to losing your union. You can have only one boss. You can have helpers, but you can't have nine guys trying to run a local. If you did, the employer would make side deals and split the union.

a lot of bored, aimless people who'd never really found any purpose. But then they realised that they could fill that hole by inventing a grievance, and taking sides, and refusing to be swayed no matter what.