You are here

Politics

For Mary Margaret

Submitted by Roanman on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 11:36

 

We have been called into question over our cynical nature with regards to our choices of quotes about politics.

It's true, we're copping to it.

Our only defense here is that after an honest twenty page search of Thinkexist.com and Brainyquote.com seriously looking for any positive thought about politics or politicians, we could only come up with three of four total.

We mixed them in here indiscriminately.

We bolded them in an effort to help you avoid our despair.

 

 Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.  Henry Brooks Adams 

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.  John Kenneth Galbraith
 
Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is ignorant.
 
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.  Henry Louis Mencken
 
Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.  Henry Brooks Adams
 
Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
 
Why are we surprised when politicians play politics? It's not like they are supposed to be real adults... they are, after all, politicians and don't have real jobs and aren't playing around with their own money.
 
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.   Plato
 
I have come to the conclusions that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.  Charles de Gaulle
 
In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country of the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.  Charles de Gaulle
 
Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.  Robert Louis Stevenson
 
High politic is only common sense applied to great things.  Napoleon Bonaparte
 
Politics ruins the character.  Otto von Bismarck
 
Public life is regarded as the crown of a career, and to young men it is the worthiest ambition. Politics is still the greatest and the most honorable adventure.  Pat Riley
 
Without alienation, there can be no politics.  Arthur Miller
 
Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.  Mao Tse-Tung
 
Politics is largely governed by sententious platitudes which are devoid of truth.  Bertrand Russell 
 
Politics is the diversion of trivial men who, when they succeed at it, become important in the eyes of more trivial men.  George Jean Nathan
 
Politics are the divine science, after all.  John Adams
 
The only thing we learn from a new election is we learned nothing from the old.  Gerald Barzan
 
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.   Pericles
 
Politics isn't about big money or power games; it's about the improvement of people's lives.  Paul Wellstone
 
If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates.  Howard Zinn
 
Many a man goes into politics with a fine future and comes out with a terrible past.  Otto von Bismarck
 
During a political campaign everyone is concerned with what a candidate will do on this or that question if he is elected except the candidate; he's too busy wondering what he'll do if he isn't elected.  Everett Dirksen
 
Politics is very much like taxes - everybody is against them, or everybody is for them as long as they don't apply to him.  Fiorello La Guardia
 
Politics: The highest calling to the lowest falling.  Gregory Nunn
 
Political history is largely an account of mass violence and of the expenditure of vast resources to cope with mythical fears and hopes.   Murray Edelman
 
To succeed inside a political party, one must cultivate an ability to sit still and remain polite while foolish people speak nonsense.  Morton Blackwell
 
One of the most curious things about American politics is that without a single historical exception a partisan is invariably a member of the other party.
 
To let politics become a cesspool, and then avoid it because it is a cesspool, is a double crime.  Howard Crosby
 
To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise above your principles.
 
In politics, you must let the other person have your way.  Claiborne Pell
 
In politics nothing is contemptible.  Benjamin Disraeli
 
Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.  Doug Larson
 
In politics, every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it.  Donald Rumsfeld
 
Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important. Eugene J. McCarthy
 
I don't know a lot about politics, but I can recognize a good party man when I see one.  Mae West
 
 

To quote Barack Obama with George Stephanopoulos

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 01/24/2010 - 07:59

 

OK, OK, so ...... maybe not the whole world.

 

STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, I assume this has been about the most packed year of your life.

OBAMA: It has.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The most fulfilling?

OBAMA: Yes. And let me just sort of share with you some general reflections about this year. When I was sworn in, we didn't know if the financial system was going to collapse. We weren't sure how bad the job losses were going to be. They turned out to be much worse than anybody had anticipated. There were reports of a possible terrorist attack the day of the inauguration.

The amount of uncertainty was enormous. And walking through that door, you know, we immediately were confronted with just stacks of tough decisions that had to be made. During the course of this year we've had to make some decisions that were unpopular. We've made some mistakes. I've personally made some mistakes.

But what I can tell you is, a year later, I've never been more optimistic about the possibilities of America. I'm certainly a lot more optimistic than I was a year ago. And the reason is, is this country's shown its resilience. It took a body blow, and yet people are out there still starting businesses, they're still raising families, they're still coaching little league.

And, you know, I get letters, 10 a day from families. And a lot of them are heartbreaking stories. But a lot of them are just saying, you know with all the problems that we have and maybe I disagree with you on something, I'm still praying for you, I'm still optimistic, I still think that we can come together.

If we can get through 2009, as tough a year as it was, where a pandemic flu ranked about eighth on my To Do list and ended with a attempted terrorist attack and then a cataclysm in our neighborhood -- in Haiti. If we can come through 2009 and still not just be standing, but all kinds of good things happening out in the country, then I am very optimistic about where we can go.

What I haven't been able to do yet -- and this was what I was hired to do -- is to close the gap between the values of the American people and the values of Washington, and the values of Wall Street. The values of our big institutions.

These values -- the American people's values are sound. They're right. You know, people take responsibility for their lives, they work hard. They're doing right by their families. Our institutions aren't matching up to those values. And my job over the course of this year has been to see A, if we can just solve the immediate crisis. But now I've got to spend a lot more time just focused on how do we get those things to align.

And, you know, If there's one thing that I regret this year, is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us, that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are and why we have to make sure those institutions are matching up with those values. And that I do think is a mistake of mine. I think the assumption was, if I just focus on policy, if I just focus on the, you know this provision, or that law, or are we making a good, rational decision here --

STEPHANOPOULOS: That people would get it.

OBAMA: That people will get it. And I think that, you know, what they've ended up seeing is this feeling of remoteness and detachment where, you know, there's these technocrats up here, these folks who are making decisions. Maybe some of them are good, maybe some aren't, but do they really get us and what we're going through? And I think that I can do a better job of that and partly because I do believe that we're in a stronger position now than we were in a year ago.

That also means, by the way, that we can spread out what we do so it's not so cram packed. It doesn't mean I back off the agenda of health care, or energy, or education, or financial regulatory reform, or dealing with our deficits. But it does mean that it doesn't have to be all on top of the other piled on. And we've got a lot more time to explain to people why we're doing what we're doing. We have a lot more time to answer critics who argue that we're not doing the right thing.

But the bottom line is this -- at the end of this year I can say honestly that not only has this been the busiest time of my life, but I also think that I've never been prouder of the country, and more optimistic about the direction that we can go in the future.

 

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Politics