Archive

Quotes

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

—Herodotus, c. 425 BC

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

—Henrik Ibsen, 1882

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

—Aristophanes, c. 424 BC

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BC

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, 1887

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

—Mao Zedong, 1938

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

—Mario Cuomo, 1985

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

—Che Guevara, 1968

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

—John Nance Garner, c. 1967

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

—Anthony Burgess, 1972

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

—Paul Valéry, 1943

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

—Arthur Miller, 2001