Quotes on Politics

The offhand decision of some commonplace mind high in office at a critical moment influences the course of events for a hundred years.

By 'radical,' I understand one who goes too far; by 'conservative,' one who does not go far enough; by 'reactionary,' one who won't go at all.

If you think too much about being re-elected, it is very difficult to be worth re-electing.

Politics are not the task of a Christian.

The Second Amendment says we have the right to bear arms, not to bear artillery.

Politics should share one purpose with religion: the steady emancipation of the individual through the education of his passions.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

In politics... never retreat, never retract... never admit a mistake.

God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.

I've seen many politicians paralyzed in the legs as myself, but I've seen more of them who were paralyzed in the head.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent.

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court he ceases to be your friend.

I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here.

This administration is going to be cussed and discussed for years to come.

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.

If I hadn't been President of the United States, I probably would have ended up a piano player in a bawdy house.