Quotes on Politics

It is not enough to understand, or to see clearly. The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity, by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task.

Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.

When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.

Sure it's a big job; but I don't know anyone who can do it better than I can.

We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.

I'm an idealist without illusions.

Every revolutionary ends up either by becoming an oppressor or a heretic.

By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly; who know the great enthusiasums, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at best know the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Success in politics demands that you must take your people into confidence about your views and state them very clearly, very politely, very calmly, but nevertheless, state them openly.

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.

Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend?

A President's hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.

If the book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But, for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides, if we choose.

[The American President] has to take all sorts of abuse from liars and demagogues.… The people can never understand why the President does not use his supposedly great power to make ’em behave. Well, all the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.

No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.