Quotes About Politicians

I believe that, in this country, the press exerts a greater and a more pernicious influence than the church did in its worst period. We are not a religious people, but we are a nation of politicians.

No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has not yet opened his mouth to speak, who is capable of settling the much-vexed questions of the day. We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire.

In sum, so far as the politicians are concerned, the lesson that this book tried to instill more than thirty years ago does not seem to have been learned anywhere.

One of the things that you have trouble with politicians, particularly in Washington, is when you get mad at them and you can't touch them; you can't punch them; you can't yell at them.

My dad, toward the end of his life, said our health care system expects you to check your brains at the door. He was right. Yell at your politicians. Lose control.

The politicians of New York have everything that is necessary to make proper decisions and they will have to live with what happens afterwards. The worst scenario is the politicians covering their eyes and turning it over to the FBI.

My readers know my views on politics and politicians because I make no secret of them in my comments for 'The New Yorker' and elsewhere.

As a young man, Dickens worked as a reporter in the House of Commons and hated it. He felt that all politicians spoke with the same voice.

If you believe in democracy, than you can't trash it by being cynical about the people who do democracy: the politicians.

There are some tremendous actors in the U.K. who have been knighted, and I've spent much of my life admiring many of them, like Laurence Olivier. So it's very flattering to be in their company. But you also end up in the company of people you don't admire, including some rather dodgy politicians.

I'm not a detail guy. I depend on accountants and administrators to do my detail stuff for me, but I do know the overall picture and I know that if you put business people together in a room, not just politicians, they could shrink the deficit tremendously by good business tactics.

Faith in technocrats over politicians is not a trend from which Britain is exempt.

Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear - and what they want to hear is what won't happen.

It's important to realize that whenever you give power to politicians or bureaucrats, it will be used for what they want, not for what you want.

Science has an unfortunate habit of discovering information politicians don't want to hear, largely because it has some bearing on reality.

He had been around politicians for a long time, and he was prepared for some outburst.

We are belabored by the insistence on the part of our politicians, businessmen and military leaders, and the claque of scriveners who serve them, that 'growth' and 'power' are intrinsic goods, of which we can never have enough, or even too much. As if gigantism were an end in itself. As if a commendable rat were a rat twelve hands high at the shoulders — and still growing. As if we could never have peace on this planet until one state dominates all others [Edward Abbey].

Ours is a government of checks and balances. The Mafia and crooked businessmen make out checks, and the politicians and other compromised officials improve their bank balances.

In the midst of this unsettling frenzy there is something we all need to know. God is your banker. God is your social security. God is your health-care provider. You don't need a bigger government. You have a great God. And unlike silver-tongued politicians, He can be trusted to keep His promises. I vote for Him.

The politicians say "we" can't afford a tax cut. Maybe we can't afford the politicians.

HIstory collects secrets like politicians collect lies.

If bitter party name-calling turns people off then smear politics just destroys all credibility in the aims of politicians, the role of political parties and the political process itself.

Smoking calms me down. It's enjoyable. I don't want politicians deciding what is exciting in my life.

Politicians in Italy seem to spend so much time giving interviews, they don't have time to make the laws.