The more you understand politics, the more you realize that you mustn't move.
– Jonar Nader
The teaching of politics is that the Government, which was set for protection and comfort of all good citizens, becomes the principal obstruction and nuisance with which we have to contend… The cheat and bully and malefactor we meet everywhere is the Government.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, …Journal, 1860
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.
– H. L. Mencken
There is a schizophrenic nature in modern politics. A leader is expected to have a religious faith but he is not supposed to let it influence him in his duties. Somehow, the truths that determine everything else about his existence are not allowed to influence how he conducts himself in public life. Not only that, his principles are usually considered so personal that the public is not even allowed to know for certain what they are. This passes for noble statecraft in our time. It was once thought cowardice.
– Stephen Mansfield
Those who do not do politics will be done in by politics.
– French Proverb
To bemoan the messiness of politics is not just a folly it betrays a dangerous impatience with basic realities. It is like becoming disturbed that people do not fall in love sensibly -- and so deciding to computerize the problem.
– Theodore Roszak
To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals.
– William Penn
To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise above your principles.
– Anonymous
War is a continuation of politics by other means.
– Carl Von Clausewitz, quoted by Gene Hackman in "Crimson Tide"
War is the continuation of politics by other means.
– General Karl Von Clausewitz, Book: "On War"
What is politics but persuading the public to vote for this and support that and endure these for the promise of those
– Gilbert Highet
What we won when all of our people united ... must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. ... Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president.
– Lyndon B. Johnson
What's real in politics is what the voters decide is real.
– Unknown
Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.
– Albert Einstein
You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.
– Charles Bukowski
You do the policy, I'll do the politics.
– J Danforth Quayle
“I can't change the fact that I wasn’t in this place personally when I was in politics, and I genuinely regret that. It was very hard, personally,”
– Ken Mehlman
