Politics Quotes

Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same - hardihood. Give them raw truth.

~ John Jay Chapman

Next to courage, willpower is the most important thing in politics.

~ Paul Johnson

War is an arena for the display of courage and virtue. Or war is politics by other means. War is a quasi-mystical experience where you get in touch with the real. There are millions of narratives we impose to try to make sense of war.

~ Phil Klay

It shows courage, and it shows commitment to move beyond the status-quo politics of rhetoric, which is all the Cuban-American community has received from any party for the last half century.

~ Joe Garcia

I have a huge political interest. I just wish I had the courage to come into politics in India.

~ Shekhar Kapur

I admire people who come to politics because it takes a lot of courage to be in politics in India.

~ Shekhar Kapur

The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.

~ Martin Luther King

It's like being at the kids' table at Thanksgiving - you can put your elbows on it, you don't have to talk politics... no matter how old I get, there's always a part of me that's sitting there.

~ John Hughes

Agriculture is a business that has been up to its bib overalls in politics since the first Thanksgiving dinner kickback to the Indians for subsidizing Pilgrim maize production with fish head fertilizer grants.

~ P. J. O'rourke

Conservatism has had from its inception vigorously positive, intellectually rigorous agenda and thinking. That agenda should have in my three pillars: strengthen the economy, strengthen our security, and strengthen our families.

~ Mitt Romney

Those at the top would do better with a smaller share of a booming economy that elicits a positive politics than they will do with an ever-larger share of an anemic economy that fuels the politics of anger.

~ Robert Reich

When I first ran, being a woman in politics was seen as both a negative and also a positive. You could attract more women voters, but on the other hand, a lot of men wouldn't vote for you.

~ Tammy Duckworth

It is important to recognize and politics positive thinking is often the slaves' virtue - something that people do to con themselves about the burden and change being placed upon them.

~ James Bovard

I got my first camera when I was 21 - my boyfriend gave it to me for my birthday - but at that point politics was my life, and I viewed the camera as a tool for expressing my political beliefs rather than as an art medium.

~ Carrie Mae Weems

As a newcomer to America who learned to 'speak American' by watching movies, I firmly believe that to change the politics of immigration and citizenship, we must change culture - the way we portray undocumented people like me and our role in society.

~ Jose Antonio Vargas

What is it that unites, on the left of British politics, George Orwell, Billy Bragg, Gordon Brown and myself? An understanding that identity and a sense of belonging need to be linked to our commitment to nationhood and a modern form of patriotism.

~ David Blunkett

I think I'm one of the most patriotic people that I've ever encountered in America. I consider myself a bedrock patriot. I participate very actively in local politics, because my voice might be worthwhile. I participate in a meaningful way - not by donations; I work at it.

~ Hunter S. Thompson

Affirming belief that America is an exceptional nation has become a test of patriotism in American politics.

~ Michael Ignatieff

Politics is too partisan, and sometimes patriotism is cast aside. Patriotism is honor and love of your country and your brothers and sisters. With politics I get the impression that it's all about what's good for the party and not necessarily what's good for the country.

~ Ricardo Montalban

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

~ J. William Fulbright

I went into politics thinking that, if I made arguments in good faith, I'd get a hearing. It's a reasonable assumption, but it's wrong. In five and a half years in politics up north, no one really bothered to criticize my ideas, such as they were. It was never my message that was the issue. It was always the messenger.

~ Michael Ignatieff

We need a government, not politics. Because there's too much politics. Of course there should be debate. But there seems to be so much pettiness and not enough good faith. It is civilized to agree to disagree, and this idea is slowly disintegrating. The great statesmen of the past knew this, and I think it helps drive civilization.

~ Daphne Guinness

Compared to developed countries, or even to some major emerging countries, burdened by aging populations, financial crises, widening budget deficits, faltering faith in politics and growing social demands, Africa has become the world's last 'New Frontier:' a kind of 'it-continent.'

~ Mo Ibrahim

Most people don't realize, I really have no faith in politics. I'm not a politician. If I thought you could change human hearts by laws, I would, but I don't.

~ Rick Warren

To restore the American experiment in democratic self-government, religious believers need to redouble their civic efforts. For without our active participation in politics, the government will continue to trample on our rights. The Constitution does not prevent people of faith from being active in politics.

~ Edwin Meese

Architects feel empowered to give opinions about politics and sociology and philosophy without knowing much about it. Kind of in the same way that they think they can design furniture or fashion or utensils for dining.

~ Rafael Vinoly

Politics doesn't make strange bedfellows - marriage does.

~ Groucho Marx

Politics only makes the difficult challenge of marriage even harder, with the demands of the job and the public spotlight it casts on a union.

~ Mark Mckinnon

Transparency is not about restoring trust in institutions. Transparency is the politics of managing mistrust.

~ Ivan Krastev

When truth takes a backseat to ego and politics, trust is lost.

~ Patrick Lencioni

Of course you can't 'trust' what people tell you on the web anymore than you can 'trust' what people tell you on megaphones, postcards or in restaurants. Working out the social politics of who you can trust and why is, quite literally, what a very large part of our brain has evolved to do.

~ Douglas Adams

Let's put aside the politics and trust the people. Let's embrace the unique opportunity we all have; take the heat and make the hard and difficult decisions, knowing that we're doing it to make things better for the people of Illinois.

~ Rod Blagojevich

We associate the North Atlantic with cod. The motto of Newfoundland used to be 'In cod we trust.' It was a joke, but it was essentially true. But there is no cod anymore. And that's extraordinary. It's all because of either greed or politics - Canadian politics.

~ Simon Winchester

I understand the damage the expenses crisis has done to Parliament, and the paramount importance of restoring trust in our politics.

~ George Osborne

Making promises and then saddling yourself with a political system and a political union that means that you cannot deliver those promises, I fear, doesn't contribute to an atmosphere of trust and confidence in politics.

~ Michael Gove

Working out the social politics of who you can trust and why is, quite literally, what a very large part of our brain has evolved to do.

~ Douglas Adams

People don't care anymore because they don't believe in us; they don't trust us. And that's why we should change politics, not just accept the cynical frame that, 'Well, that's just politics.'

~ Gavin Newsom

Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.

~ Charles Krauthammer

During the 'ballad' years for me, the politics was latent; I was just falling in love with the ballads and my boyfriend. And there was the beauty of the songs.

~ Joan Baez

In the 19th century, you had bourgeois art without politics - an almost frozen idea of what beauty is.

~ Douglas Sirk