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 shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967It 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 U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCThe Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.
—Che Guevara, 1968I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990