Quotes About Maneuvering

Politicians use economics in the same way that a drunk uses lamp-posts—for support rather than illumination. —variation on a theme of Andrew Lang (1910)

the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience.

did what people will do in politics, or on the sea when the wind is against them,—I tacked.

You know as well as I do, my dear boy, that in politics there are no people, only ideas; no feelings, only interests. In politics, you don't kill a man, you remove an obstacle, that's all.

Sun Tzu thousands of years earlier: All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; and when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

Hegelian dialectic, or problem, reaction, solution. This method basically involves fabricating or intensify a problem, offering a draconian solution, then settling for a "compromise" that nevertheless furthers the intended goal.

Come on Geena. Dude's slippery as hell. He could talk his way out of a blow job in the Oval Office.

There is an art, a deeply political art, of taking circumstances as they arise and attributing them to your side or the opposition, in a constant tallying of reality towards ends of which it is innocent.

Every time we can force our opponents into a bad decision, we win.

a great social success is a pretty girl who plays her cards as carefully as if she were plain

A very confused, very juvenile moment of awkward backings and bumpings followed, and everyone found himself talking to the person he least desired to. Isabella manoeuvred herself and Froggy Parker, freshman at Harvard, with whom she had once played hop-scotch, to a seat on the stairs. A humorous reference to the past was all she needed. The things Isabelle could do socially with one idea were remarkable.

Mrs. Hopewell had no bad qualities of her own but she was able to use other people's in such a constructive way that she never felt the lack.

Officials in every White House crowbar the facts to make their cases.

Manipulating an election in a small developing country doesn't have the same sort of ripple effect of electing Donald Trump into the White House.

I don't know that Donald Trump really cares about what the outcome is, as long as he's in charge of it. Seeing whom he can steer in which direction and how far he can push them.

She felt like a chess player who, by the clever handling of his pieces, sees the game taking the course intended. Her eyes were bright and tender with a smile as they glanced up into his; and her lips looked hungry for the kiss which they invited.

the best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.

When you do things in a soft way, you make the other people believe they've thought up something to do for you, when actually you're directing them." Later, Ruth

exactly what Commander Cavilo wants. It's why she shipped me back

Yes, you do. You get everything you want out of people. I don't know how you do it, but you are a born wheedler. Thank you. Fire away.

The Federalist-controlled Congress was maneuvering for partisan advantage and betraying an unbecoming nativist streak. Federalists wanted to curb an influx of Irish immigrants, who were usually pro-French and thus natural adherents to the Republican cause.

I won her over the same way I hunted - loping after the fawn I wanted to eat, never in a hurry, making it a game, tiring her out, nipping at her heels playfully until eventually she almost wanted me to break her neck and open her up like a purse.

Lester Morrow could quite possibly have enough pull with the army to foil Howell's own attempts at promotion.

What would my grandfather say? Ben thought. Politics is the art of chingando. Chinga aquí, chingá allá, chinga a todos iguales. The art of chingando was very democratic; everybody got screwed.