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, 1921Quotes
Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1830The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.
—John Nance Garner, c. 1967The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.
—Frederick Douglass, 1855You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BCA government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1944I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.
—John Maynard Keynes, 1917