Political Arguments Quotes

• I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Cheer, Mean, Thinking

  "Thatcher Put the "Great" Back in Great Britain" by Jack Kelly, www.realclearpolitics.com. April 14, 2013.

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• The social intuitionist model offers an explanation of why moral and political arguments are so frustrating: because moral reasons are the tail wagged by the intuitive dog. A dog’s tail wags to communicate. You can’t make a dog happy by forcibly wagging its tail. And you can’t change people’s minds by utterly refuting their arguments.

  Jonathan Haidt

  Dog, People, Political

  Jonathan Haidt (2012). “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion”, p.48, Vintage

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• Nothing uses up alcohol faster than political argument.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Witty, Alcohol, Political

  Robert A Heinlein (1966). “Moon Is Harsh Mistres”, Berkley

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• Liberals think their campaign against Wal-Mart is a way of introducing the subject of class into America's political argument, and they are more correct than they understand. Their campaign is liberalism as condescension. It is a philosophic repugnance toward markets, because consumer sovereignty results in the masses making messes. Liberals, aghast, see the choices Americans make with their dollars and their ballots and announce - yes, announce - that Americans are sorely in need of more supervision by... liberals.

  George Will

  Thinking, Class, America

  "Dems Vs. Wal-Mart". www.jewishworldreview.com. September 14, 2006.

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• In my work, you get used to criticisms. Of course you do, because there are a lot of people trying to get you down, but I always cheer up immensely if one is particularly wounding because I think well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left. That is why my father always taught me: never worry about anyone who attacks you personally; it means their arguments carry no weight and they know it.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Cheer, Father, Mean

  TV Interview with Enzo Biagi for Italian Television (RAI), www.margaretthatcher.org. March 10, 1986.

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• I think it's always dangerous to make political arguments in a religiously ideological way. And it's very dangerous to treat as traitors to the American nation those who think differently.

  Adam Michnik

  Thinking, Political, Way

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• A striking feature of moral and political argument in the modern world is the extent to which it is innovators, radicals, and revolutionaries who revive old doctrines, while their conservative and reactionary opponents are the inventors of new ones.

  Alasdair MacIntyre

  Political, Doctrine, World

  Alasdair MacIntyre (2003). “A Short History of Ethics: A History of Moral Philosophy from the Homeric Age to the 20th Century”, p.162, Routledge

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• There are two kinds of comprehensive doctrines, religious and secular. Those of religious faith will say I give a veiled argument for secularism, and the latter will say I give a veiled argument for religion. I deny both. Each side presumes the basic ideas of constitutional democracy, so my suggestion is that we can make our political arguments in terms of public reason. Then we stand on common ground. That's how we can understand each other and cooperate.

  John Rawls

  Religious, Ideas, Two

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• If I'm in a political argument, I think I can, with reasonable accuracy and without boasting, put the other person's side of the case at least as well as they could. One has to be able to say that in any well-conducted argument.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Thinking, Political, Able

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• Any comprehensive doctrine, religious or secular, can be introduced into any political argument at any time, but I argue that people who do this should also present what they believe are public reasons for their argument. So their opinion is no longer just that of one particular party, but an opinion that all members of a society might reasonably agree to, not necessarily that they would agree to. What's important is that people give the kinds of reasons that can be understood and appraised apart from their particular comprehensive doctrines.

  John Rawls

  Religious, Party, Believe

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• To complete the rout of traditionalists, in America an impression began to arise that the new industrial and acquisitive interests are the conservative interest, that conservatism is simply a political argument in defense of large accumulations of private property, that expansion, centralization, and accumulation are the tenets of conservatives. From this confusion, from the popular belief that Hamilton was the founder of American conservatism, the forces of tradition in the United States never have fully escaped.

  Russell Kirk

  America, Confusion, Political

  Russell Kirk (1978). “The conservative mind: from Burke to Eliot”

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• The power to determine the quantity of money... is too important, too pervasive, to be exercised by a few people, however public-spirited, if there is any feasible alternative. There is no need for such arbitrary power... Any system which gives so much power and so much discretion to a few men, [so] that mistakes - excusable or not - can have such far reaching effects, is a bad system. It is a bad system to believers in freedom just because it gives a few men such power without any effective check by the body politic - this is the key political argument against an independent central bank.

  Milton Friedman

  Trust, Mistake, Independent

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• Red lines are kind of political arguments that are used to try to put people in a corner.

  Leon Panetta

  People, Political, Trying

  "A Whole New Era". Interview with Lois Farrow Parshley, foreignpolicy.com. September 17, 2012.

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• My main contribution was to demolish the myths that India couldn't economically afford nuclear weapons. Of course I made these political arguments too, but the main contribution I made was a study of the cost of acquiring a credible deterrent, and show that it was within the budget of India, and it would not be an unbearable burden.

  Subramanian Swamy

  Political, Cost, Weapons

  "India’s Nuclear Option". Interview in New Delhi, India, lsopenvault01.wgbh.org. February 12, 1987.

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