Quotes on Political

I court not the votes of the fickle mob.

What is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in.

In public administration good sense would seem to require that public expectation be kept at the lowest possible level in order to minimize eventual disappointment.

A world united is better than a world divided, but a world divided is better than a world destroyed.

An efficient and a successful administration manifests itself equally in small as in great matters.

By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little.

There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The DEMOCRATIC idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them

You call that statesmanship. I call it an emotional spasm.

Herein indeed consists the excellence of the English government, that all parts of it form a mutual check upon each other.

The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it.

As a historian, he felt it his duty to respect everything that had ever been respected, except for the occasional statesman.

There's not the least thing can be said or done, but people will talk and find fault.

The basis of effective government is public confidence, and that confidence is endangered when ethical standards falter or appear to falter.

Plots, true or false, are necessary things, To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings.

In the founding era of our country, it was not organized religion but personal faith that brought focus and unified the early leadership-maybe an unspoken faith in God, and certain values that came with that faith. So in that sense, we cannot discount, in my judgment, religious faith in politics.

A political leader is necessarily an imposter since he believes in solving life's problems without asking its question.

Being critical of the nation is a far cry from being unpatriotic or anti-American. In fact, most social criticism . . . is based on a love of America's ideals and a concern we're not living up to them.

Words uttered under coercion are proof of loyalty to nothing but self-interest. Love of country must spring from willing hearts and free minds.

If the money is raised by taxation, then the burden will fall where it ought to fall, . . . and the rich and stingy will no longer be able to evade the duties of citizenship and of humanity.

I react pragmatically. Where the market works, I'm for that. Where the government is necessary, I'm for that. I'm deeply suspicious of somebody who says, 'I'm in favor of privatization,' or, 'I'm deeply in favor of public ownership.' I'm in favor of whatever works in the particular case.

It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers but by their distribution that good government is effected.