Politics Quotes

"Let them call me a rebel and welcome it. Fore I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils were I to make a whore of my soul"

Its January 31st 2012, and it is 60 degrees in the City of Chicago, but that's not global warming, nah. The religious folk say that God is just opening his arms and giving the world a big hug today.

A man who sets his face against every sort of humbug is simply a three-cornered, impracticable fellow. There's a bad sort of humbug, but there is also a good style - one that oils the wheels and makes progress possible. If you are to rule men, you must rule them through their own ideas... There is no action possible without a little acting.

Just because I choose to act unethically, does not mean that I don't know what the right way is

The Law is just like a religion. It contradicts itself, it has 50 exceptions to every rule, if you know everything about it you'll be in a better place, and it is wielded by the discretion of men of the cloth to progress their own prerogatives.

When they talk about taxes it’s always for teachers, firemen, and police — but when they spend your taxes, it always seems to go to some guy in a leather chair downtown you never heard of.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

"... all people yearn for certain things: ... government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.

Politics is the art of deciding who gets left out.

Worrying that someone is illegally benefiting from your tax dollars is like living in constant fear that someone might have stolen the penny you left in the spare change tray at the gas station.

The first lesson that you must learn is that, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic.

The power of the Executive to cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government.

The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

Tina Fey: Maybe what bothers me the most is that people say that Hillary is a bitch.
Let me say something about that: Yeah, she is.
And so am I and so is this one. (pointing to Amy Poehler)
Amy Poehler: Yeah, deal with it.
Tina Fey: Know what? Bitches get stuff done.

I cannot be mistaken. What I say and do is historical.

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.

Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.

Somewhere out in the audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the President's spouse. I wish him well!