Politics Observation Quotes

“السياسة فن السفالة الأنيقة”
― أنيس منصور, كتاب عن كتب

“If you treat people right they will treat you right ... ninety percent of the time.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best.”
― Otto von Bismarck

“Every election is determined by the people who show up.”
― Larry J. Sabato , Pendulum Swing

“When widely followed public figures feel free to say anything, without any fact-checking, it becomes impossible for a democracy to think intelligently about big issues.”
― Thomas L. Friedman

“[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.”
― Harry S. Truman

“The ruling power is always faced with the question, ‘In such and such circumstances, what would you do?’, whereas the opposition is not obliged to take responsibility or make any real decisions.”
― George Orwell

“A Man Without Honor
is Worse than Dead.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“If we look more closely, we see that any violent display of power, whether political or religious, produces an outburst of folly in a large part of mankind; indeed, this seems actually to be a psychological and sociological law: the power of some needs the folly of others. It is not that certain human capacities, intellectual capacities for instance, become stunted of destroyed, but rather that the upsurge of power makes such an overwhelming impression that men are deprived of their independent judgment, and...give up trying to assess the new state of affairs for themselves.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

“All empires become arrogant. It is their nature.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, New York

“One of the hallmarks of our politics now is that we tend to elect those who can campaign over those who can lead;”
― Ethan Canin, America America

“Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.”
― Bergen Evans

“Politics is the business of getting power and privilege without possessing merit. A politician is anyone who asks individuals to surrender part of their liberty - their power and privilege - to State, Masses, Mankind, Planet Earth, or whatever. This state, those masses, that mankind, and the planet will then be run by . . . politicians.”
― P. J. O'Rourke

“Both groups [of pundits] were critics, and that is the heart of the problem. If you are a pundit, you seem so smart when you are telling the President what he did wrong… This [is] mostly BS.”
― Jeffrey A. Miller

“The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.”
― Cornelius Tacitus

“The women of the world will dominate politics, some day, and you mustn't be too old-fashioned in your notions to join the procession of progress.”
― L. Frank Baum, Phoebe Daring: A Story for Young Folk

“You don't get to be the president of anything if you have bad manners.”
― Daven Anderson, Vampire Syndrome

“The difference between a sucker and a seeker is the degree to which each internalises a sense of certainty and to what ends they will go in extrapolating it into utter absurdity.”
― Ryan Fletcher

“There are only a few people who are able to change the map of the world”
― Atef Ashab Uddin Sahil

“...The authoritarian is usually not some kind of evil genius but rather the bumbling fool, who in an attempt to become the biggest, most wealthy, most successful king of kings, ends up bringing down the entire system.”
― Kara Cooney, The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World

“If the present planting of humanity upon Spaceship Earth cannot comprehend this inexorable process and discipline itself to serve exclusively that function of metaphysical mastering of the physical it will be discontinued”
― F. Buckminster Fuller

“The similarities between both of these groups were striking and should be clear to anyone who reads this book. Both groups were and are defined primarily by an unshakable belief in the inhumanity of their enemies on the other side; the Christians seldom distinguished between Islamic terrorism and, say, Al Gore–style environmentalism, while the Truthers easily believed that reporters for the Washington Post, the president, and the front-line operators of NORAD were equally capable of murdering masses of ordinary New York financial-sector employees. Abandoned by the political center, both groups ascribed unblinkingly to a militant, us-against-them worldview, where only their own could be trusted. What made them distinctly American was that, while actually the victims of an obvious, unhidden conspiracy of corrupt political power, they chose to battle bugbears that were completely idiotic, fanciful, and imaginary”
― Matt Taibbi, The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire

“No voter wants to believe he doesn’t really matter, so he buys into the idea that there are two substantively different parties frantically competing for his attention, the ideological fate of the country hanging on his decision every few years. It flatters the average citizen to think that way. The reality is that the dominant characteristic of our political system is the unchanging nature of the political consensus—while the two parties agree about most all of the important things, they disagree violently about the inconsequential stuff, providing the fodder and the drama for an endless political “struggle” that plays itself out in entertaining fashion every couple of years.”
― Matt Taibbi, The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire

“Campaigning before three months of an election is just like studying for an exam one hour before: you never know the outcome.”
― Vikrant Adams

“Don't strive to be a great politician, but strive to be a great leader — the rewards will be far greater.”
― Vikrant Adams

“Relying on politicians for answers is like expecting a magic eight ball to solve your problems - it's more fun to shake it, but the real answers come from within! ”
― Dipti Dhakul

“It’s always the wrong women that are in power”
― Kaia Chanel

“A congressional logjam is only unavoidable when obstructionist morons put party ahead of country.”
― Stuart Woods, Smooth Operator

“Fun fact: King Cnut wasn't really trying to stop the tide. He was demonstrating to his subjects the limits of his power. Radical thing for a person to do in his position. Of course they didn't understand and he has gone done in history as a bit of a prick.”
― David Marston

“Writers are extremely important people in a country, whether or not the country knows it. The multiple truths about a people are revealed by that people's artists--that is what the artists are for.”
― James Baldwin, The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings