Politics Quotes - Page 18

• Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

  Aristotle

  Philosophical, Tyrants, People

  Aristotle (1971). “On Man in the Universe”

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• I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Running, Military, Ifs

  Telegram sent to General Henderson in 1884. "Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman", 4th edition, 1891.

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• I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.

  Adlai E. Stevenson

  Funny, Friends, Truth

  Campaign remark, Fresno, Cal., 10 Sept. 1952. John F. Parker, in "If Elected, I Promise ...": Stories and Gems of Wisdom by and About Politicians (1969), attributes the reverse statement to Chauncey Depew (1834 - 1928): "If you will refrain from telling any lies about the Republican party, I'll promise not to tell the truth about the Democrats."

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• I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Patience, Perseverance, Powerful

  In Observer 4 Apr. 1989

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• Sure it's a big job; but I don't know anyone who can do it better than I can.

  John F. Kennedy

  Jobs, Political, Bigs

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• When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.

  John F. Kennedy

  Wisdom, Government, Justice

  Speech at White House, 27 May 1961, in New York Times 28 May 1961, p. 39

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• Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

  George Washington

  Freedom, War, Fire

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• If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government.

  Barry Goldwater

  Drinking, Government, Political

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• The United States brags about its political system, but the President says one thing during the election, something else when he takes office, something else at midterm and something else when he leaves.

  Deng Xiaoping

  Office, Political, President

  Said in 1983. "The Pacific Rim and the Western World: Strategic, Economic, and Cultural Perspectives". Book edited by Philip West, Frans A.M. Alting von Geusau, p. 105, 1987.

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• In most places in the country, voting is looked upon as a right and a duty, but in Chicago it's a sport.

  Dick Gregory

  Sports, Country, Voting

  Dick Gregory (1972). “Dick Gregory's political primer”

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• A right delayed is a right denied.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Rights, Rejection

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• Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Political, Causes, Charity

  Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). “Strength to Love”

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• I was a woman in a man's world. I was a Democrat in a Republican administration. I was an intellectual in a world of bureaucrats. I talked differently. This may have made me a bit like an ink blot.

  Jeane Kirkpatrick

  Men, Intellectual, Ink

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• I know many writers who first dictate passages, then polish what they have dictated. I speak, then I polish - occasionally I do windows.

  Ed Koch

  Firsts, Bedtime, Speak

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• The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.

  Mark Twain

  Laughter, Political, United States

  Mark Twain (2016). “Mark Twain in Eruption (Abridged, Annotated)”, p.58, BIG BYTE BOOKS

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• When one may pay out over two million dollars to presidential and Congressional campaigns, the U.S. government is virtually up for sale.

  John W. Gardner

  Government, Two, Presidential

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• In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Mistake, Power, Political

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  It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.

  George MacDonald

  Power, Men, People

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• If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be even a worse fate, you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

  Winston Churchill

  Peace, Freedom, War

  Winston Churchill (1986). “The Gathering Storm”, p.312, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all.

  John W. Gardner

  Ignorance, Simple, Two

  "A Nation Is Never Finished". ABA Journal, Volume 53, page 1011, November 1967.

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• The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Democracies Have, Political, Historical

  "Lothair". Book by Benjamin Disraeli, Ch. 17, 1870.

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• Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Freedom, Independent, Men

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

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• Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

  C. S. Lewis

  Peace, War, Government

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.45, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Country

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

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• In politics, strangely enough, the best way to play your cards is to lay them face upwards on the table.

  H. G. Wells

  Play, Political, Cards

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