One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician,
ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered,
for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one.
- Henry Miller
Crime does not pay ... as well as politics.
- Alfred E. Newman
All politics are based on the indifference of the majority.
- James Reston
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in
affairs which properly concern them.
- Paul Valery
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government
except all the others that have been tried.
- Winston Churchill
Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president,
and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president.
- Johnny Carson
The nearest thing to immortality is this world is a government
bureau.
- General Hugh S. Johnson
I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against
every form of tyranny over the mind of man. All tyranny
needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience
to remain silent. When governments fear the people there
is liberty. When the people fear the government there is
tyranny.
- Thomas Jefferson
He didn't run for reelection. `Politics brings you into
contact with all the people you'd give anything to avoid,'
he said. `I'm staying home.'"
- Garrison Keillor
Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent
a bad reputation.
- Henry Kissinger
Congress - these, for the most part, illiterate hacks whose
fancy vests are spotted with gravy, and whose speeches,
hypocritical, unctous, and slovenly, are spotted also with the
gravy of political patronage.
- Mary McCarthy
Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president,
and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president.
- Johnny Carson
The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't
work and then gets elected and proves it.
- P.J. O'Rourke
So long as governments set the example of killing their
enemies, private citizens will occasionally kill theirs.
- E. Hubbard
Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always
aiming at something beyond political life itself - Power and
glory, or happiness.
- Aristotle
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
The more you read and observe about this Politics thing,
you got to admit that each party is worse than the other.
The one that's out always looks the best.
- Will Rogers
Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest
of principles.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build
bridges even when there are no rivers.
- Nikita Khrushchev
Politics gives guys so much power that they tend to behave
badly around women. And I hope I never get into that.
- Bill Clinton
Oh, I don't blame Congress. If I had $600 billion at my disposal,
I'd be irresponsible, too.
- Lichty & Wagner
In our civilization, and under our republican form of government,
intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption
from the cares of office.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
There is a holy mistaken zeal in politics as well as in
religion. By persuading others we convince ourselves.
-The Letters of Junius, #35
The mystery of government is not how Washington
works but how to make it stop.
- P. J. O'Rourke
In order to be a diplomat one must speak a number
of languages including double-talk.
- Carey McWilliams
[A politician is] a person skilled in the art of compromise.
Usually an elected official who has compromised to get
nominated, compromised to get elected, and compromised
repeatedly to stay in office.
- Dick Gregory (1932-) US comedian, author, activist
A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man.
In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so
many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that
he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker.
- H.L. Mencken
A politician will do anything to keep his job -- even become a
patriot.
- William Randolph Hearst US newspaper publisher
Election time is that period when politicians
get free speech mixed up with cheap talk.
- James Walker
Have you ever seen a candidate talking to a rich person on
television?
- Art Buchwald
I once said cynically of a politician, 'He'll
double cross that bridge when he comes to it.'
- Oscar Levant
The whole art of the political speech is to put 'nothing'
into it. It is much more difficult than it sounds.
- Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) English writer, poet
Guidelines for Bureaucrats:
1. When in charge, ponder.
2. When in trouble, delegate.
3. When in doubt, mumble.
- James H. Boren
I looked up 'politics' in the dictionary, and
it's actually a combination of two words; 'poli',
which means many, and 'tics', which means
'bloodsuckers.'
-Jay Leno
The natural progress of things is for liberty to
yield and government to gain ground.
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Vote early and vote often.
- Al Capone (1899-1947)
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to
trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both
commonly succeed, and are right.
- H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)
Nothing can so alienate a voter from the
political system as backing a winning candidate.
- Mark B. Cohen
Half of the American people have never read a
newspaper.
Half never voted for President. One hopes it is
the same half.
- Gore Vidal
Bad officials are elected by good citizens who
do not vote.
- George Jean Nathan
The great difficulty with politics is that there are no established
principles.
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it,
misdiagnosing it and then misapplying the wrong remedies.
- Groucho Marx
Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be
smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it
important.
- Eugene McCarthy US politician, teacher
Politics is developing more comedians than radio ever did.
- Jimmy Durante (1893-1980) US comedian
In America you can go on the air and kid the politicians, and the
politicians can go on the air and kid the people.
- Groucho Marx
I think it's about time we voted for senators with breasts. After
all, we've been voting for boobs long enough.
- Claire Sargent
You cannot adopt politics as a profession and remain honest.
- Louis McHenry Howe
Politics make estranged bedfellows.
- Goodman Ace
In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you
want anything done ask a woman.
-Margaret Thatcher
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I
have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance
to the first.
-Ronald Reagan
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
- Plato
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