Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCQuotes
If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
—Henrik Ibsen, 1882The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972The 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, 1921It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.
—Francis Bacon, 1625The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.
—Immanuel Kant, 1784