The test of a real comedian is whether you laugh at him before he opens his mouth.
George Jean NathanRead
Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the responsibility of citizens to vote, hinting that their inaction leads to poor leadership.
This quote by George Jean Nathan underscores the critical role that voter participation plays in the democratic process. It suggests that when good citizens fail to engage in elections, they inadvertently allow unfit leaders to be chosen, thus highlighting a direct connection between civic duty and the quality of governance.
In practice
During a political debate, one might say this quote to encourage audience members to participate in upcoming elections.
The test of a real comedian is whether you laugh at him before he opens his mouth.
Beauty makes idiots sad and wise men merry.
It may be said that artist and censor differ in this wise: that the first is a decent mind in an indecent body and that the second is an indecent mind in a decent body.
It is the mark of a superior person that, left to themselves they are able endlessly to amuse, interest and entertain themselves out of their personal stock of meditations, ideas, criticisms, memories, philosophy, humor and what not.
Politics is the diversion of trivial men who, when they succeed at it, become important in the eyes of more trivial men.
All that is necessary to raise imbecility into what the mob regards as profundity is to lift it off the floor and put it on a platform.
Democracy's a very fragile thing. You have to take care of democracy. As soon as you stop being responsible to it and allow it to turn into scare tactics, it's no longer democracy, is it? It's something else. It may be an inch away from totalitarianism.
The president - every president - works for us. We don't work for him. We sometimes lose track of this, or rather get the balance wrong. Respect is due and must be palpable, but now and then you have to press, to either force them to be forthcoming or force them to reveal that they won't be.
Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.
A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.
I learned that fighting on the chess board could also have an impact on the political climate in the country.
A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected.
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