Quotes on Politics

My books are not 'political.' I don't make political demands. They actually describe life. But when we look at human life, politics creeps in everywhere.

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.

No matter what you may think about her politics or her record, Hillary Clinton understands that this is not reality television; this is reality. She understands the job of president. It involves finding solutions, not pointing fingers; and offering hope, not stoking fear.

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction.

The heaviest penalty for deciding to engage in politics is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.

Art is inherently political. Even trying to make a film that has nothing to do with politics is, in and of itself, a political act.

Elections exist for the sake of the House of Commons and not the House of Commons for the sake of elections.

I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

The point of public relations slogans like "Support Our Troops" is that they don't mean anything ... that's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody is going to be against and I suppose everybody will be for, because nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. But its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something, do you support our policy? And that's the one you're not allowed to talk about.

In every country today, there is politics. It may be authoritarian politics, but there is politics.

A government is an institution that holds a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence.

We do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We see no military - we seek no military bases there. It is agonizing for America to lose our young men and women. It is costly and politically difficult to continue this conflict. We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and now Pakistan determined to kill as many Americans as they possibly can.