Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
Interpretation
Most politicians are viewed negatively because of the few who act poorly, impacting the perception of the entire group.
This quote by Henry A. Kissinger highlights the tendency to generalize the behavior of all politicians based on the actions of a minority. It suggests that the negative actions of a small percentage of politicians can tarnish the reputation of the majority, making it important to critically assess individuals rather than relying on broad stereotypes.
In practice
During a political debate, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of individual accountability in politics.
Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed. History is a tale of efforts that failed, or aspirations that werenβt realized. So, as a historian, one has to live with a sense of the inevitability of tragedy.
Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.
It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.
The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
If peace is equated simply with the absence of war, it can become abject pacifism that turns the world over to the most ruthless.
What political leaders decide, intelligence services tend to seek to justify.
We support the security of both Israel and her neighbors.
Presidential ambition is a disease that can only be cured by embalming fluid.
If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
If a British government experienced such a long and persistent resistance to domestic policy in England, then that policy would almost certainly be changed... We have asserted that we are political prisoners, and everything about out country - our arrests, interrogations, trials, and prison conditions - show that we are politically motivated.
Anyone who thinks that the vice-president can take a position independent of the president of his administration simply has no knowledge of politics or government. You are his choice in a political marriage, and he expects your absolute loyalty.
History furnishes to politics all the arguments that it needs, for the chosen cause.
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