Politics Archives

When you first start to say "ideological" it can sound lot like "idiot-logical" if you're not careful. -- Bill Purdin More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. -- Woody Allen He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met. -- Abraham Lincoln Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. -- Abraham Lincoln In peace, labor is the progenitor of capital and its supplier. In war this is reversed. That's why capital always prefers war over peace. -- Bill Purdin The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. -- H. L. Mencken Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! -- Pericles I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. --Winston Churchill Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.... But then I repeat myself. --Mark Twain We always give dictators sll the rope they need to hang us. This includes Donald Trump. We always have only ourselves to blame. -- Bill Purdin Most people assume the fights are going to be the left versus the right, but it always is the reasonable versus the jerks. -- Jimmy Wale To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. -- Thomas Paine Beneath the shallow phoneyness of politics lies the true phoneyness. -- Bill Purdin Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all. -- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Don't you wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence? There's one marked 'Brightness,' but it doesn't work. -- Gallagher We're the ones we've been waiting for. -- Barack Obama Now is the time for all good men to come to. -- Walt Kelly It seems to me that one of the overriding principles in running the country is the government outght to be neutral. It has a very strong obligation to be impartial, and not use its power to advance political agendas or personal agendas. -- Justice John Paul Stevens He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. -- Thomas Paine Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius. -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Much of the social history of the Western world has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. -- Thomas Sowell Barack Obama is the Tiger Woods of politics: he makes everyone else into second-stringers. -- Bill Purdin It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen. -- Aristotle You will know your enemies because they are the ones who interfere with the work. -- Bette Davis Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly. -- Albert Einstein If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you. -- Don Marquis Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself. -- Elie Wiesel Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. -- Michael Crichton A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth. -- Michael Kinsley Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there. -- E. H. Gombrich Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct. -- Benjamin Disraeli Bad politicians always want control. Good politicians know that that is the last thing they want. -- Bill Purdin The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -- Ronald Reagan Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so. -- Gore Vidal It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking. -- Julius Caesar Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything. -- Frank Dane The big thieves hang the little ones. -- Czech Proverb You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it. -- Malcolm X All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume. -- Noam Chomsky The real distinction is between those who adapt their purposes to reality and those who seek to mold reality in the light of their own purposes. -- Henry Kissinger Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty. -- Simone Weil Believing that we have not been told the truth is one thing, answering all of the questions that that belief raises is another. -- Bill Purdin Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. -- Samuel Johnson I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty. -- Thomas Jefferson Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. Ambrose Bierce Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. -- Arthur C. Clarke I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many and to the prejudices of the few. -- Benjamin Disraeli 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 Jr. Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. -- George Bernard Shaw The word 'politics' os derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'. -- Larry Hardiman When everyone is against you, it means you are absolutely wrong -- or absolutely right. -- Albert Guinon Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy. -- Ernest Benn After many years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood. -- Fred Thompson We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for. -- Marie Ebner von Eschenbach Half the work that is done in the world is done to make things appear what they are not. -- E.R. Beadle Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. -- Plato Your very silence shows you agree. -- Euripides The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action. -- Frank Herbert At the feast of ego, everyone leaves hungry. -- Anonymous The surest way to happiness is to lose yourself in a cause greater than yourself. -- Unknown Kites rise highest against the wind -- not with it. -- Sir Winston Churchill They can because they think they can. -- Virgil Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. -- Pericles (430 B.C.) I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. -- Will Rogers Making each other look good creates the anti-dynamic pooling of like people. -- Bill Purdin What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary. -- Richard Harkness, The New York Times What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson Our critics are our friends. They show us our faults. -- Benjamin Franklin Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. -- Plato Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one. -- Chinese Proverb We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes. Jr. As life is action and passion, it is required of man that he should share the passion and action of his time, at peril of being judged not to have lived. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes. Jr. The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it -- Albert Einstein We must not expect simple answers to far-reaching questions. -- Alfred North Whitehead Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves. -- Abraham Lincoln In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant. -- Charles De Gaulle The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes. -- Winston Churchill Their nature, by training and instinct, is to argue and procrastinate. Yet we continue to elect lawyers. -- Ben Franklin It seems to be a law of nature that Republicans are more boring than Democrats. -- Stewart Alsop It is the elected official's duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasure, his satisfaction to theirs -- and above all, ever and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his unbiased opinion, his mature judgement, his enlightened conscience, he ought not sacrifice to you, to any man, or any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure -- nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement: and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion. -- Edmund Burke, in his essay, The Role of the Public Official as Representative, 1774 When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property. -- Thomas Jefferson If you use words for political purposes, they soon lose whatever meaning they may have had. -- Charles P. Snow Deeds, not stones, are the true monuments of the great. -- John L. Motley If there is anything a public servant hates to do it's something for the public. -- Anonymous Now and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature. -- Kin Hubbard Example is not the main thing in life--it is the only thing. -- Albert Schweitzer Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid. -- Mark Twain There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees. -- Michael de Montaigne The man who enjoys marching in line and file to the strains of music falls below my contempt; he received his great brain by mistake. -- Albert Einstein Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk. -- Joaquin Setanti The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. -- Adlai Stevenson You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. -- Abraham Lincoln What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. -- Thomas Jefferson Search all the parks in your cities You'll find no statues to committees. -- Anonymous All warfare is based on deception. Therefore, when capable, feign incapacity; when active, inactivity. When near, make it appear that you are far away; when far away, that you are near. Offer the enemy a bait to lure him, feign disorder and strike him. When he concentrates, prepare against him; where he is strong avoid him. Anger his general and confuse him. Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance. Keep him under strain and wear him down. When he is united, divide him. Attack where he is unprepared; sally out when he does not expect you. These are the strategist's keys to victory. It is not possible to discuss them beforehand. -- Sun Tzu, The Art Of War Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. -- Vincent Van Gogh I have always been among those who believe that the greatest freedom of speech is the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking. -- Woodrow Wilson Come the millennium, month 12, In the home of greatest power, The village idiot will come forth To be acclaimed the leader. -- Nostradamus wrote this in 1555 Just as tall trees are known by their shadows, so are good men known by their enemies. --Old Chinese Proverb On three of the rules governing the mechanics of compromise 1. In any conflict between two men (or two groups) who hold the same basic principles, it is the more consistent one who wins. 2. In any collaboration between two men (or two groups) who hold different basic principles, it is the more evil or irrational one who wins. 3. When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly defined, it works to the advantage of the rational side; when they are not clearly defined, but are hidden or evaded, it works to the advantage of the irrational side. -- "The Anatomy of Compromise," Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand There is no gambling like politics. -- Benjamin Disraeli The stakes are much too high for government to be a spectator sport. -- Barbara Jordan You get my support when I agree with what you say or when I don't care about what you say. This time I disagree with you. -- CJ. West Wing If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. -- Chinese Proverb History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other alternatives. -- Abba Eban If two men agree on everything, you can be sure one of them is doing the thinking. -- Lyndon Baines Johnson Politics is not a meritocracy. -- Joan Rosenthal A little girl asked her mother if all fairy tales began with "Once upon a time." "No," she replied, "today, most them begin with "If I'm elected." --Anonymous The punishment suffered by the wise who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of bad men. -- Plato It is a Hamlet-like torture to be truly liberal. -- Leonard Bernstein