WIST Quotations

Oliver, Andrew -- Speech (1774?)

Dave — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 17:29:59 +0000

Politics is the most hazardous of all professions. There is not another in which a man can hope to do so much good to his fellow creatures; neither is there any in which by a mere loss of nerve he may do such widespread harm. Nor is there another in which he may so easily lose his own soul; nor is there another in which a positive and strict veracity is so difficult. But danger is the inseparable companion of honor. With all the temptations and degradations that beset it, politics is still the noblest career any man can choose.

Andrew Oliver (1706-1774) American Colonial merchant, politician, government official
Speech (1774?)
(Source)

I cannot find an original source for this. It shows up frequently in the US Congressional Record, especially after it was used by Adlai Stevenson in a 1952 campaign speech.

It is also attributed to his same-named son (1731-1799), who founded the Political Journal.

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Autobiography, ch. 5 “Applied Idealism” (1913)

Dave — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:15:21 +0000

Under the spoils system a man is appointed to an ordinary clerical or ministerial position in the municipal, Federal, or State government, not primarily because he is expected to be a good servant, but because he has rendered help to some big boss or to the henchman of some big boss. His stay in office depends not upon how he performs service, but upon how he retains his influence in the party. This necessarily means that his attention to the interests of the public at large, even though real, is secondary to his devotion to his organization, or to the interest of the ward leader who put him in his place.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 5 “Applied Idealism” (1913)
(Source)

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Autobiography, ch. 5 “Applied Idealism” (1913)

Dave — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 22:28:34 +0000

Indeed, the doctrine that “To the victor belong the spoils,” the cynical battle-cry of the spoils politician in America for the sixty years preceding my own entrance into public life, is so nakedly vicious that few right-thinking men of trained mind defend it. To appoint, promote, reduce, and expel from the public service, letter-carriers, stenographers, women typewriters, clerks, because of the politics of themselves or their friends, without regard to their own service, is, from the standpoint of the people at large, as foolish and degrading as it is wicked.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 5 “Applied Idealism” (1913)
(Source)

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1955-10-29), “The Crisis in Agriculture,” Democratic Rally, Duluth, Minnesota

Dave — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 07:27:01 +0000

Behind the politics of big talk and little action lies the simple fact that most of the big men who run this show want little government.

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1955-10-29), “The Crisis in Agriculture,” Democratic Rally, Duluth, Minnesota
(Source)

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Autobiography, ch. 5 “Applied Idealism” (1913)

Dave — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:59:17 +0000

Civil Service Reform had two sides. There was, first, the effort to secure a more efficient administration of the public service, and, second, the even more important effort to withdraw the administrative offices of the Government from the domain of spoils politics, and thereby cut out of American political life a fruitful source of corruption and degradation.
The spoils theory of politics is that public office is so much plunder which the victorious political party is entitled to appropriate to the use of its adherents. […] Yet there were many flagrant instances of inefficiency, where a powerful chief quartered friend, adherent, or kinsman upon the Government. Moreover, the necessarily haphazard nature of the employment, the need of obtaining and holding the office by service wholly unconnected with official duty, inevitably tended to lower the standard of public morality, alike among the office-holders and among the politicians who rendered party service with the hope of reward in office.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 5 “Applied Idealism” (1913)
(Source)

Russell, Bertrand -- Lecture (1949-01-23), “Control and Initiative: Their Respective Spheres,” Reith Lecture, “Authority and the Individual” No. 5, BBC Radio

Dave — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 07:58:19 +0000

In national politics, where you are one of some twenty million voters, your influence is infinitesimal unless you are exceptional or occupy an exceptional position. You have, it is true, a twenty-millionth share in the government of others, but only a twenty-millionth share in the government of yourself. You are therefore much more conscious of being governed than of governing.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Lecture (1949-01-23), “Control and Initiative: Their Respective Spheres,” Reith Lecture, “Authority and the Individual” No. 5, BBC Radio
(Source)

Transcript. As collected in Authority and the Individual (1949)

Russell, Bertrand -- Lecture (1949-01-30), “Individual and Social Ethics,” Reith Lecture, “Authority and the Individual” No. 6, BBC Radio

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2026 17:49:30 +0000

People do not always remember that politics, economics, and social organisation generally, belong in the realm of means, not ends. Our political and social thinking is prone to what may be called the “administrator’s fallacy,” by which I mean the habit of looking upon a society as a systematic whole, of a sort that is thought good if it is pleasant to contemplate as a model of order, a planned organism with parts neatly dove-tailed into each other. But a society does not, or at least should not, exist to satisfy an external survey, but to bring a good life to the individuals who compose it. It is in the individuals, not in the whole, that ultimate value is to be sought. A good society is a means to a good life for those who compose it, not something having a separate kind of excellence on its own account.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Lecture (1949-01-30), “Individual and Social Ethics,” Reith Lecture, “Authority and the Individual” No. 6, BBC Radio
(Source)

Transcript. As collected, with edits, in Authority and the Individual (1949).

Ivins, Molly -- Essay (1992-03-01), “Good morning, Fort Worth! Glad to be here,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2026 16:26:46 +0000

It’s all very well to dismiss the dismal sight of our Legislature in action by saying, “I’m just not interested in politics,” but the qualifications of the people who prescribe your eyeglasses, how deep you will be buried, what books your kids read in school, whether your beautician knows how to give a perm, the size of the cells in Stripe City, and a thousand and one other matters that touch your lives daily are decided by the dweebs, dorks, geeks, crooks, and bozos we’ve put into public office.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1992-03-01), “Good morning, Fort Worth! Glad to be here,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram
(Source)

Collected in Nothin' but Good Times Ahead (1993)

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Demagogue,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1882-01-20)

Dave — Tue, 12 May 2026 19:25:50 +0000

DEMAGOGUE, n. A political opponent.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Demagogue,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1882-01-20)
(Source)

Not collected in later books.

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Corrupt,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-10-07)

Dave — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:54:32 +0000

CORRUPT, adj. In politics, holding an office of trust or profit.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Corrupt,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-10-07)
(Source)

Not collected in later books.

Beecher, Lyman -- Sermon (1823-10-15), “The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints,” Worcester, Massachusetts

Dave — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 20:05:28 +0000

No great advance has been made in science, religion, or politics, without controversy.

Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) American minister, preacher, abolitionist
Sermon (1823-10-15), “The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints,” Worcester, Massachusetts
(Source)

A sermon on Jude 3, given at the ordination of Rev. Loammi Ives Hoadly, to the Pastoral Office over the Calvinistic Church and Society. Collected in Beecher, Sermons Delivered on Various Occasions (1828) [ed. Theophilus Marvin].

This is nearly always rendered:

No great advance has ever been made in science, politics, or religion, without controversy.

That is the form recorded in Josiah Gilbert's inaugural Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1883), from which it was endlessly copied to similar collections.

Beecher, Lyman -- Sermon (1823-10-15), “The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints,” Worcester, Massachusetts

Dave — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 17:24:17 +0000

They are perfectly aware how little ground there can be to hope that men may be reasoned out of their errours, when in fact they were never reasoned into them, but adopted them from prejudice, passion, or policy.

Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) American minister, preacher, abolitionist
Sermon (1823-10-15), “The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints,” Worcester, Massachusetts
(Source)

At the ordination of Rev. Loammi Ives Hoadly, to the Pastoral Office over the Calvinistic Church and Society

See Swift (1720), also Smith (c. 1800).

Berry, Wendell -- Essay (1970-01-01), “Compromise, Hell!” Orion Magazine

Dave — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:55:44 +0000

We Americans are not usually thought to be a submissive people, but of course we are. Why else would we allow our country to be destroyed? Why else would we be rewarding its destroyers? Why else would we all — by proxies we have given to greedy corporations and corrupt politicians — be participating in its destruction? Most of us are still too sane to piss in our own cistern, but we allow others to do so and we reward them for it. We reward them so well, in fact, that those who piss in our cistern are wealthier than the rest of us.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (1970-01-01), “Compromise, Hell!” Orion Magazine
(Source)

Nietzsche, Friedrich -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 04:39:28 +0000

A politician divides mankind into two classes: tools and enemies. That means he knows only one class: enemies.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
(Attributed)
(Source)

This is frequently attributed to Nietzsche, without citation -- a clue that it is a paraphrase of a more complex or nuanced passage. I found only one reference online that mentioned a source -- Nietzsche's Human, All Too Human (1880) -- but a search through multiple translations did not uncover this sentiment.

Berry, Wendell -- Endorsement blurb for Charles E. Little, The Dying of the Trees (1997)

Dave — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 18:08:50 +0000

Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Endorsement blurb for Charles E. Little, The Dying of the Trees (1997)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 2, New Road (1943-06)

Dave — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 15:26:13 +0000

But what impressed me then, and has impressed me ever since, is that atrocities are believed in or disbelieved in solely on grounds of political predilection. Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 2, New Road (1943-06)
(Source)

Shulman, Naomi -- Essay (2016-11-17), “No Time To Be Nice: Now Is Not the Moment to Remain Silent,” WBUR, National Public Radio

Dave — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 03:38:31 +0000

Nice people made the best Nazis.
Or so I have been told. My mother was born in Munich in 1934, and spent her childhood in Nazi Germany surrounded by nice people who refused to make waves. When things got ugly, the people my mother lived alongside chose not to focus on “politics,” instead busying themselves with happier things. They were lovely, kind people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away.

Naomi Shulman (contemp.), American writer, essayist, editor
Essay (2016-11-17), “No Time To Be Nice: Now Is Not the Moment to Remain Silent,” WBUR, National Public Radio
(Source)

This is a revised version of the following, more commonly-seen quotation, which I have seen suggested was an earlier iteration of the above on her Facebook account (though it does not appear to be posted there any longer):

Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than “politics.” They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters.

The earliest quotation I can find of this earlier version is from 2016-11-13 (followed by these two from 2016-11-22).

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 1, New Road (1943-06)

Dave — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 15:33:08 +0000

People forget that a soldier anywhere near the front line is usually too hungry, or frightened, or cold, or, above all, too tired to bother about the political origins of the war.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 1, New Road (1943-06)
(Source)

Brecht, Bertholt -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 04:29:28 +0000

The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life. He doesn’t seem to know that the cost of living, the price of beans, of flour, of rent, of medicines all depend on political decisions. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and says he hates politics. He doesn’t know, the imbecile, that from his political non-participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and, worst of all, corrupt officials, the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German poet, playwright, director, dramaturgist
(Attributed)

A chewy quote that is widely attributed to Brecht, but no actual citation has been found.

Carlin, George -- Book (2001), Napalm & Silly Putty, “Short Takes”

Dave — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 16:44:39 +0000

One of the more pretentious political self-descriptions is “Libertarian”. People think it puts them above the fray. It sounds fashionable and, to the uninitiated, faintly dangerous. Actually, it’s just one more bullshit political philosophy.

George Carlin (1937-2008) American comedian
Book (2001), Napalm & Silly Putty, “Short Takes”
(Source)

Ivins, Molly -- Essay (1988-08), “Unconventional Wisdom,” Ms magazine

Dave — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 15:59:54 +0000

The great quadrennial national circus is upon us: three rings, cast of thousands, red, white, and blue balloons by the ton, red, white, and blue bullshit by the hour, confusion, exhaustion, alcohol, and the fate of the nation.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1988-08), “Unconventional Wisdom,” Ms magazine
(Source)

Collected in Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? (1991).

Thompson, Hunter S. -- Kingdom of Fear, “Memo from the Sports Desk” (2003)

Dave — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 14:22:13 +0000

The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don’t mind admitting it. They worship money and power and death. Their ideal solution to all the nation’s problems would be another 100 Year War.

Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) American journalist, writer
Kingdom of Fear, “Memo from the Sports Desk” (2003)
(Source)

~Proverbs and Sayings -- Turkish Proverb

Dave — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 23:51:15 +0000

The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe because its handle was made of wood and they thought it was one of the them.

Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Turkish Proverb

While this particular phrasing is widely labeled online as a Turkish proverb, it is a fairly recent reformulation of a Talmudic or Turkish set of proverbs, and is not credited solely to the Turks.

The Babylonian Talmud (6th Century AD) includes a passage (Sanhedrin, Perek 4, 39B), indicating it was a common proverb:

As this is as people say: From and within the forest comes the ax to it, as the handle for the ax that chops the tree is from the forest itself.

As well as:

This is as people say: From and within the forest comes the ax to it, as King David was a descendant of Ruth the Moabite.

This phrase was brought into English in Rev. J. Ray's A Collection of English Proverbs (1678) as a "Hebrew Adage":

The axe goes to the wood, from whence it borrowed its helve: [the saying] is used against those who are injurious to those from whom they are derived, or from whom they have received their power.

Ray's work continued in reprint for over a century, well-establishing the phrase in English.

In a similar vein, Metin Yurtbaşı's Dictionary of Turkish Proverbs (1993) includes two such phrases, indexed under "Ingratitude". It attributes these back to Ebüzziya Tevfik, Durüb-ı, Emsâl-i Osmaniyye [Ottoman Proverbs] (1885). First:

They struck at the tree with an ax; and the tree said: “The handle is made from my body.”

[Ağaca balta vurmuşlar, “Sapı bedenimden” demiş.]

Second:

An ax went into the woods and its handle was of itself.

[Ormana (bir) balta girmiş sapı yine kendisinden (imiş).]

There are a variety of later uses, in books and then in social media, that further evolved the concept into the quotation that leads this entry, which was first tweeted by @mabarsayaaaaa (2018-02-24). In this more political form, it and further variants have also been credited as an African (Yoruba) proverb (often by African tweeters).

For more discussion of the background and origin of this quotation, see:

Lincoln, Abraham -- Speech (1848-06-20), “Internal Improvements,” US House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.

Dave — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 15:35:22 +0000

The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good. Almost every thing, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1848-06-20), “Internal Improvements,” US House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
(Source)

Speaking on internal improvements (infrastructure) as part of governmental policy. Taken from the copy of the speech Lincoln submitted to the Congressional Globe Appendix and the Illinois Journal (1848-07-20).

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1952-09-29), “Fireside Chat” (radio and television broadcast)

Dave — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 20:35:18 +0000

You may seek comfort at the feet of false leaders, who like medicine doctors beat drums to ward off evil spirits. You may listen to false leaders who tell you that there is an easy way — that all you have to do is to elect them and thereafter relax in a tax-free paradise, the political equivalent of sending 10¢ to cover the cost of postage. You may, fearing to face the facts squarely, be distracted by phony issues that have no bearing upon the life-or-death controversy of our time. But deluded you run the risk of being beguiled to destruction, for there is no easy way.

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-09-29), “Fireside Chat” (radio and television broadcast)

Reported in the Washington Evening Star (1952-09-30). Also reported in TIME Magazine, "National Affairs: Stevenson on Communism" (1952-10-13).

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 3, ch. 14 / sec. 34-35 (3.14/3.34-35) (44-12-20 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2021)]

Dave — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 16:37:53 +0000

No person is so foolish that they don’t understand that if we remain asleep at this moment we will have to live through a rule that is not only cruel and arrogant but ignoble and disgraceful too. You know this man’s arrogance, his friends, and his whole household. To serve shameful lusts, bullies, disgusting and irreverent thieves, those drunkards — well, that is the worst suffering married to the greatest dishonor.

[Nemo est tam stultus qui non intellegat, si indormierimus huic tempori, non modo crudelem superbamque dominationem nobis sed ignominiosam etiam et flagitiosam ferendam. Nostis insolentiam Antoni, nostis amicos, nostis totam domum. Libidinosis, petulantibus, impuris, impudicis, aleatoribus, ebriis servire, ea summa miseria est summo dedecore coniuncta.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 3, ch. 14 / sec. 34-35 (3.14/3.34-35) (44-12-20 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2021)]
(Source)

Warning of Mark Antony's intentions to succeed Julius Caesar. Once Antony was in power, under the Triumvirate, he had Cicero killed.

(Source (Latin)). Other translations:

There is no one so foolish as not to perceive that if we go to sleep over this opportunity we shall have to endure a tyranny which will be not only cruel and haughty, but also ignominious and flagitious. You know the insolence of Antonius; you know his friends, you know his whole household. To be slaves to lustful, wanton, debauched, profligate, drunken gamblers, is the extremity of misery combined with the extremity of infamy.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]

No man is so foolish as not to understand that, if we sleep on this crisis, we must bear a tyranny, not merely cruel and arrogant, but also ignominious and infamous. You know Antonius' insolence, you know his friends, you know his whole household. Slavery under men lustful, wanton, foul, unchaste, gamblers and drunkards, this is the utmost misery allied with the utmost disgrace.
[tr. Ker (Loeb) (1926)]

No man is so dull as not to realize that if we doze over this crisis we shall have to endure a despotism not only cruel and arrogant but ignominious and disgraceful. You now Antonius' insolence, you know his friends, you know his whole retinue. To be slave to libertines, bullies, foul profligates, gamblers, drunkards, that is the ultimate in misery joined with the ultimate in dishonor.
[tr. Manuwald (2007)]

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1952-09-29), “Fireside Chat” (radio and television broadcast)

Dave — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 17:10:18 +0000

A campaign addressed not to men’s minds and to their best instincts, but to their passions, emotions and prejudices, is unworthy at best — now, with the fate of the nation at stake, it is unbearable.

Rogers, Will -- Column (1924-08-03), “Weekly Article: Random Shots at the News of a Week” [No. 86]

Dave — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 16:45:45 +0000

If you have a radio, the next three months is a good time to have it get out of fix. All you will hear from now until the 4th of November will be: “We must get our government out of the hands of predatory wealth.” “The good people of this great country are burdened to death with taxes; now what I intend to do is ….”
What he intends to do is try and get elected. That’s all any of them intend to do.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1924-08-03), “Weekly Article: Random Shots at the News of a Week” [No. 86]
(Source)

Rogers, Will -- Column (1932-05-29), “Weekly Article”

Dave — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 20:43:57 +0000

With the election coming on, you are going to be fed a lot of hooey about a lot of things. Naturally both sides are going to put their best side forward.
They are now trying to figure out which side is their best.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1932-05-29), “Weekly Article”
(Source)

Rogers, Will -- Column (1928-07-08), “Weekly Article: Where Are the Eyes of the World Now?” [No. 289]

Dave — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:20:35 +0000

Personally I think the Camera has done more harm for Politics than any other one faction. Everybody would rather get their picture than their ideas in the paper. What does the platform of a Political party amount to compared to the photography?

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1928-07-08), “Weekly Article: Where Are the Eyes of the World Now?” [No. 289]
(Source)

Adams, John -- Letter (1776-04) to George Wythe, “Thoughts on Government”

Dave — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:48:50 +0000

FEAR is the foundation of most governments; but is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men, in whose breasts it predominates, so stupid, and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1776-04) to George Wythe, “Thoughts on Government”
(Source)

This is taken from the printed edition of the influential essay, believed to be from the version Adams sent to George Wythe of Virginia.

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1995-07-07)

Dave — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 19:49:51 +0000

CALVIN: I’m writing a fund-raising letter. The secret to getting donations is to depict everyone who disagrees with you as the enemy. Then you explain how they’re systematically working to destroy everything you hold dear. It’s a War of Values! Rational discussion is hopeless! Compromise is unthinkable! Our only hope is well-funded antagonism, so we need your money to keep up the fight!

HOBBES: How cynically unconstructive.

CALVIN: Enmity sells.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1995-07-07)
(Source)

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. -- Breakfast of Champions, ch. 17 (1973)

Dave — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 16:04:27 +0000

Fascism was a fairly popular political philosophy which made sacred whatever nation and race the philosopher happened to belong to.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007) American novelist, journalist
Breakfast of Champions, ch. 17 (1973)
(Source)

Heinlein, Robert A. -- Podkayne of Mars, ch. 4 [Tom Fries], Worlds of IF magazine (1962-11)

Dave — Wed, 21 May 2025 20:54:45 +0000

Politics is just a name for the way we get things done … without fighting. We dicker and compromise and everybody thinks he has received a raw deal, but somehow after a tedious amount of talk we come up with some jury-rigged way to do it without getting anybody’s head bashed in. That’s politics.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Podkayne of Mars, ch. 4 [Tom Fries], Worlds of IF magazine (1962-11)
(Source)

This section of the first magazine installment of three was collected as ch. 4 of the novel (1963).

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano -- Speech (1941-03-29), Jackson Day Radio Broadcast, U.S.S. Potomac

Dave — Thu, 08 May 2025 19:59:41 +0000

All of the great freedoms which form the basis of our American democracy are part and parcel of that concept of free elections, with free expression of political choice between candidates of political parties. For such elections guarantee that there can be no possibility of stifling freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the air, freedom of worship.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Speech (1941-03-29), Jackson Day Radio Broadcast, U.S.S. Potomac
(Source)

Rogers, Will -- Column (1925-03-29), “Weekly Article”

Dave — Fri, 02 May 2025 18:57:15 +0000

All you would have to do to make some men Atheists is just to tell them that the Lord belonged to the opposition Political Party. After that they could never see any good in Him.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1925-03-29), “Weekly Article”
(Source)

Ferber, Edna -- Cimarron, ch. 23 [Sabra] (1930)

Dave — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 22:51:59 +0000

If American politics are too dirty for women to take part in, there’s something wrong with American politics.

Edna Ferber (1886-1968) American author and playwright
Cimarron, ch. 23 [Sabra] (1930)
(Source)

The book is set in the late 19th Century.

Arendt, Hannah -- Interview (1973-10) with Roger Errera, Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF)

Dave — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 15:59:33 +0000

You see, tyranny has been discovered very early, and very early really as an enemy. Still, it has never in any way prevented any tyrant from becoming a tyrant. It has not prevented Nero, and has not prevented Caligula. And Nero and Caligula have not prevented a more closer example of what the massive intrusion of criminality can mean for the political process.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Interview (1973-10) with Roger Errera, Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF)

Speaking (most proximately) about the Watergate scandal.

Parts of this interview were turned into an episode of the French TV series "Un certain regard," directed by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky, first broadcast 1974-07-06. This portion of the interview comes at 49:17 in.

Bolt, Robert -- A Man for All Seasons, film (1966)

Dave — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:19:59 +0000

WOLSEY: You opposed me in the Council this morning, Thomas.

MORE: Yes, Your Grace.

WOLSEY: You were the only one.

MORE: Yes, Your Grace.

WOLSEY: You’re a fool.

MORE: Thank God there is only one fool on the Council.

Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, film (1966)
(Source)

(Source (Video); dialog confirmed.) This interchange does not occur Bolt's 1960 play.

Rogers, Will -- Column (1926-01-10), “Weekly Article”

Dave — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 22:18:24 +0000

We owe more money than any Nation in the World, and we are LOWERING TAXES. When is the time to pay off a debt if it is not when you are doing well? […] Will you tell me any good reason (OUTSIDE OF POLITICS) why Taxes should be lowered this year? I know it’s good politics to lower taxes. In fact, did you ever figure it out Taxes is all there is to Politics? I bet you tomorrow if you started a Political Party and had this as its platform , “No taxes are to be paid at all. We will borrow money on our National resources for all current expenses. Remember the Slogan. No Taxes as long as we can borrow.” Well I will bet you you would have the biggest Political party in America.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1926-01-10), “Weekly Article”
(Source)

Present in an elided form in his The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949) [ed. Donald Day].

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 1, Letter 18, sec. 6 (1.18.6) (60 BC) [tr. Shuckburgh (1900)]

Dave — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 17:21:01 +0000

The others you know without my telling you. They are such fools that they seem to expect that, though the Republic is lost, their fish-ponds will be safe.

[Ceteros iam nosti; qui ita sunt stulti, ut amissa re publica piscinas suas fore salvas sperare videantur.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 1, Letter 18, sec. 6 (1.18.6) (60 BC) [tr. Shuckburgh (1900)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translation:

The others you know well enough -- fools who seem to hope that their fish-ponds may be saved, though the country go to rack and ruin.
[tr. Winstedt (1912)]

As for the rest of the Optimates, you know them. They are so stupid as to suppose that their own fishponds can be unharmed even though the constitution go to pot.
[tr. McKinlay (1926), # 13]

The others you know. They seem fools enough to expect to keep their fish-ponds after losing constitutional freedom.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1968)]

Rogers, Will -- Column (1931-01-07), “Daily Telegram: Will Rogers Says Hunger Needs No Encouragement”

Dave — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:10:52 +0000

The Senate passed a bill appropriating 15 million for food, but the House of Representatives (up to today) had not approved it. They said no.
They seem to think that’s a bad precedent, to appropriate money for food — it’s too much like the “dole.” They must think it would encourage hunger.
The way things look, hunger doesn’t need much encouragement. It’s just coming around naturally.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1931-01-07), “Daily Telegram: Will Rogers Says Hunger Needs No Encouragement”
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1946-04), “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon Magazine

Dave — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 20:07:25 +0000

Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-04), “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon Magazine
(Source)

Chamfort, Nicolas -- Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionnée], Part 2 “Characters and Anecdotes [Caractères et Anecdotes]” (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 318]

Dave — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 22:15:26 +0000

M… was talking about life and how things were going from bad to worse. “I once read,” he said, “that there’s nothing worse for everyone concerned than a reign that’s lasted too long. I’ve also heard that God is eternal. Need we say more?”

[A propos des choses de ce bas monde, qui vont de mal en pis, M… disait: J’ai lu quelque part qu’en politique il n’y avait rien de si malheureux pour les peuples que les règnes trop longs. J’entends dire que Dieu est éternal; tout est dit.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionnée], Part 2 “Characters and Anecdotes [Caractères et Anecdotes]” (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 318]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Speaking of matters here below and how they go from bad to worse, M—— said, “I read somewhere that in politics nothing was so unfortunate for the people as reigns that lasted too long. I hear that God is eternal. There is nothing more to be said.”
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

In politics ... nothing is as unfortunate for the people as reigns which last too long. I hear that God is eternal -- which says it all.
[tr. Dusinberre (1992), frag. 769]

Wallace, Henry -- “The Danger of American Fascism,” New York Times (1944-04-09)

Dave — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 14:52:16 +0000

The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be superpatriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

Henry Wallace (1888-1965) American politician, journalist, farmer, businessman
“The Danger of American Fascism,” New York Times (1944-04-09)
(Source)

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris

Dave — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 14:19:54 +0000

If a public man tries to get your vote by saying that he will do something wrong in your interest, you can be absolutely certain that if ever it becomes worth his while he will do something wrong against your interest.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris
(Source)

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris

Dave — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 23:24:39 +0000

Of one man in especial, beyond any one else, the citizens of a republic should beware, and that is of the man who appeals to them to support him on the ground that he is hostile to other citizens of the republic, that he will secure for those who elect him, in one shape or another, profit at the expense of other citizens of the republic. It makes no difference whether he appeals to class hatred or class interest, to religious or anti-religious prejudice. The man who makes such an appeal should always be presumed to make it for the sake of furthering his own interest.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1946-04), “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon Magazine

Dave — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 21:38:02 +0000

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-04), “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon Magazine
(Source)

Nin, Anais -- Diary (1957, Spring)

Dave — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 22:27:02 +0000

Big Business and Politics are twins, they are the monsters who kill everything, corrupt everything.

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) Catalan-Cuban-French author, diarist
Diary (1957, Spring)
(Source)

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1789-093-13) to Francis Hopkinson

Dave — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 14:37:59 +0000

My great wish is to go on in a strict but silent performance of my duty: to avoid attracting notice and to keep my name out of newspapers, because I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1789-093-13) to Francis Hopkinson
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1850-05-01), “Stump-Orator,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 5

Dave — Thu, 30 May 2024 14:33:19 +0000

If the young aspirant is not rich enough for Parliament, and is deterred by the basilisks or otherwise from entering on Law or Church, and cannot altogether reduce his human intellect to the beaverish condition, or satisfy himself with the prospect of making money, — what becomes of him in such case, which is naturally the case of very many, and ever of more? In such case there remains but one outlet for him, and notably enough that too is a talking one: the outlet of Literature, of trying to write Books.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1850-05-01), “Stump-Orator,” Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. 5
(Source)

Elders, Joycelyn -- Keynote Speech, Sistersong Conference, Chicago (2007-06-03)

Dave — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 16:39:26 +0000

It [political opposition] is like dancing with a bear. When you’re dancing with a bear, you can’t get tired and sit down. You have to wait for the bear to get tired.

Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933) American pediatrician, public health administrator, academic
Keynote Speech, Sistersong Conference, Chicago (2007-06-03)
(Source)

Lear, Norman -- “What makes Norman Lear, at 98, still tick?”, interview by Jonathan LaPook, CBS News Sunday Morning (2021-01-10)

Dave — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 18:40:10 +0000

We are in this lifetime together. And maybe it’s possible to appreciate the other guy for the way his mind works, even when he’s not working your way.

Norman Lear (1922-2023) American television writer-producer
“What makes Norman Lear, at 98, still tick?”, interview by Jonathan LaPook, CBS News Sunday Morning (2021-01-10)
(Source)

(Source (Video))

On his "pen pal friendship" with Ronald Reagan, his political opposite.

Russell, Bertrand -- Interview by Woodrow Wyatt, BBC TV (1959)

Dave — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 15:36:20 +0000

There’s a great deal to be said for nationalism, for keeping diversity — in literature, in art, in language, and in all kinds of cultural things. But when it comes to politics, I think nationalism is an unmitigated evil. I don’t think there’s a single thing to be said in its favor.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Interview by Woodrow Wyatt, BBC TV (1959)

Collected in Bertrand Russell's BBC Interviews (1959) [UK] and Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind (1960) [US]. Reprinted (abridged) in The Humanist (1982-11/12), and in Russell Society News, #37 (1983-02).

Mencken, H. L. -- A Little Book in C Major, ch. 3, § 19 (1916)

Dave — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 16:39:31 +0000

If all public questions were settled by shooting dice, fifty percent of them would be settled correctly. This would be five times as good a score as we make now.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major, ch. 3, § 19 (1916)
(Source)

Elders, Joycelyn -- Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, s. 4, ep. 6 “Abstinence” (2006-06-05)

Dave — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 16:25:35 +0000

As long as I was in Washington I never met anybody that I thought was good enough, who knew enough, or who loved enough to make sexual decisions for anybody else.

Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933) American pediatrician, public health administrator, academic
Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, s. 4, ep. 6 “Abstinence” (2006-06-05)
(Source)

Lowell, James Russell -- “Abraham Lincoln” (1864), My Study Windows (1871)

Dave — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 17:17:20 +0000

Among the lessons taught by the French Revolution, there is none sadder or more striking than this — that you may make everything else out of the passions of men except a political system that will work, and that there is nothing so pitilessly and unconsciously cruel as sincerity formulated into dogma.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
“Abraham Lincoln” (1864), My Study Windows (1871)
(Source)

Russell, Bertrand -- Interview by Woodrow Wyatt, BBC TV (1959)

Dave — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 16:12:40 +0000

A fanatical group all together have a comfortable feeling that they’re all friends with one another. They are all very much excited about the same thing. You can see it in any political party. There’s always a fringe of fanatics in any political party, and they feel very cozy with one another; and when that is spread about and is combined with a propensity to hate some other group, you get fanaticism well developed.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Interview by Woodrow Wyatt, BBC TV (1959)
(Source)

Collected in Bertrand Russell's BBC Interviews (1959) [UK] and Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind (1960) [US]. Reprinted (abridged) in The Humanist (1982-11/12), and in Russell Society News, #37 (1983-02).

Hand, Learned -- “Sources of Tolerance,” speech, University of Pennsylvania Law School (1930-06)

Dave — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:16:00 +0000

Historians may be dogmatists, I know, though not so often now as when history was dogma. At least you will perhaps agree that even a smattering of history and especially of letters will go far to dull the edges of uncompromising conviction. No doubt one may quote history to support any cause, as the devil quotes scripture; but modern history is not a very satisfactory side-arm in political polemics; it grows less and less so.

Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“Sources of Tolerance,” speech, University of Pennsylvania Law School (1930-06)
(Source)

Collected in The Spirit of Liberty (1953).

Virgil -- Georgics [Georgica], Book 2, l. 504ff (2.504-513) (29 BC) [tr. Bovie (1956)]

Dave — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 22:26:11 +0000

Others lash the unknown seas with oars,
Rush at the sword, pay court in royal halls.
One destroys a city and its homes
To drink from jewelled cups and sleep on scarlet;
One hoards his wealth and lies on buried gold.
One gapes dumbfounded at the speaker’s stand;
At the theater, still another, open-mouthed,
Reels before crescendos of applause
From the tiers where mob and dignitaries sit.
Others are keen to drench themselves in blood,
Their brothers’ blood, and, exiled, change their homes
And winsome hearths, to range abroad for room
To live in, underneath a foreign sun.

[Sollicitant alii remis freta caeca ruuntque
in ferrum, penetrant aulas et limina regum;
hic petit excidiis urbem miserosque Penatis,
ut gemma bibat et Sarrano dormiat ostro;
condit opes alius defossoque incubat auro;
hic stupet attonitus rostris; hunc plausus hiantem
per cuneos — geminatus enim plebisque patrumque —
corripuit; gaudent perfusi sanguine fratrum,
exsilioque domos et dulcia limina mutant
atque alio patriam quaerunt sub sole iacentem.]

Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Georgics [Georgica], Book 2, l. 504ff (2.504-513) (29 BC) [tr. Bovie (1956)]
(Source)

Virgil contrasting violent, ambitious, vain, and rootless life of city folk (evoking the Roman civil wars), in contrast to the bucolic peace and sense of home enjoyed by farmers.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Some vex the Sea, and some to war resorts,
Attend on Kings, and waite in Princes Courts.
This would his Countrey, and his God betray
To drink in Jems, and on proud scarlet lye.
This hides his wealth, and broods on hidden gold,
This loves to plead, and that to be extold
Through all the seats of Commons, and the sires.
To bathe in's brothers blood this man desires.
Some banish'd, must their native seats exchange,
And Countries, under other Climates range.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]

Some to the Seas, and some to Camps resort, ⁠
And some with Impudence invade the Court.
In foreign Countries others seek Renown,
With Wars and Taxes others waste their own.
And Houses burn, and household Gods deface,
To drink in Bowls which glitt'ring Gems enchase:
⁠ To loll on Couches, rich with Cytron Steds,
And lay their guilty Limbs in Tyrian Beds.
This Wretch in Earth intombs his Golden Ore,
Hov'ring and brooding on his bury'd Store.
Some Patriot Fools to pop'lar Praise aspire, ⁠
By Publick Speeches, which worse Fools admire.
While from both Benches, with redoubl'd Sounds,
Th' Applause of Lords and Commoners abounds.
Some through Ambition, or thro' Thirst of Gold;
Have slain their Brothers, or their Country sold: ⁠
And leaving their sweet Homes, in Exile run
To Lands that lye beneath another Sun.
[tr. Dryden (1709), l. 720ff]

Some rush to battle, vex with oars the deep,
Or in the courts of Kings insidious creep;
For cups of gem, and quilts of Tyrian, die,
Others remorseless loose each public tie:
On hoarded treasures these ecstatic gaze,
Those eye the Rostra, stupid with amaze:
This for the theatre's applauding roar
Sighs: with the blood of brothers sprinkled o'er
From their dear homes to exile others run,
And seek new seats beneath a distant sun.
[tr. Nevile (1767), l. 565ff]

Some vex with restless oar wild seas unknown.
Some rush on death, or cringe around the throne;
Stern warriors here beneath their footsteps tread
The realm that rear'd them, and the hearth that fed,
To quaff from gems, and lull to transient rest
The wound that bleeds beneath the Tyrian vest.
These brood with sleepless gaze o'er buried gold,
The rostrum these with raptur'd trance behold,
Or wonder when repeated plaudits raise
'Mid peopled theatres the shout of praise;
These with grim joy, by civil discord led,
And stain'd in battles where a brother bled.
From their sweet household hearth in exile roam,
And seek beneath new suns a foreign home.
[tr. Sotheby (1800)]

Some vex the dangerous seas with oars, some rush into arms, some work their way into courts, and the palaces of kings. One destines a city and wretched families to destruction, that he may drink in gems and sleep on Tyrian purple. Another hoards up wealth, and broods over buried gold. One, astonished at the rostrum, grows giddy; another peals of applause along the rows, (for it is redoubled both by the people and the fathers,) have captivated, and set agape; some rejoice when stained with their brother's blood; and exchange their homes and sweet thresholds for exile, and seek a country lying under another sun.
[tr. Davidson (1854)]

While others vex dark Hellespont with oars,
Leap on the sword, or dash through royal stores,
Storm towns and homesteads, in their vile desire
To quaff from pearl, and sleep on tints of Tyre;
While others hoard and brood on buried dross,
And some are moonstruck at the pleader's gloss;
While this man gapes along the pit, to hear
The mob and senators renew their cheer;
And others, reeking in fraternal gore,
With songs of triumph quit their native shore,
Abjure sweet home for banishment, and run
In quest of country 'neath another sun --
[tr. Blackmore (1871), l. 602ff]

Others are startling the darkness of the deep with oars, rushing on the sword's pint, winning their way into the courts and ante-chambers of kings; another is dooming a city to ruin and its homes to misery, that he may drink from jewelled cups and sleep on Tyrian purple; another hoards his wealth, and broods o'er buried gold; this man is dazzled and amazed by the eloquence of the rostra; that man the applause of commoners and senators, as it rolls redoubled through the benches, transports agape with wonder; they steep their hands in brothers' blood and joy, they change their homes and the thresholds of affection for the land of exile, and seek a fatherland that lies beneath another sun.
[tr. Wilkins (1873)]

Others vex
The darksome gulfs of Ocean with their oars,
Or rush on steel: they press within the courts
And doors of princes; one with havoc falls
Upon a city and its hapless hearths,
From gems to drink, on Tyrian rugs to lie;
This hoards his wealth and broods o'er buried gold;
One at the rostra stares in blank amaze;
One gaping sits transported by the cheers,
The answering cheers of plebs and senate rolled
Along the benches: bathed in brothers' blood
Men revel, and, all delights of hearth and home
For exile changing, a new country seek
Beneath an alien sun.
[tr. Rhoades (1881)]

These dare the ocean, and invite the storm,
This rage, and this the courtier’s wiles deform;
All faith, all right the traitor’s acts defy,
From gems to drink, on Tyrian purple lie;
One broods in misery o’er his hoarded gold.
And one in chains the people’s plaudits hold.
There stains of blood pollute a brother’s hand,
And he in terror flies his father’s land.
[tr. King (1882), l. 514ff]

Some vex the dangerous seas with oars, or rush into arms, or work their way into courts and the palaces of kings: one marks out a city and its wretched homes for destruction, that he may drink from jewelled cups and sleep on Tyrian purple. Another hoards up wealth, and lies sleepless on his buried gold. One, in bewildered amazement, gazes at the Rostra; another, in open-mouthed delight, the plaudits of the commons and the nobles, redoubled along benches, have arrested: some take pleasure in being drenched with a brother’s blood; and exchange their homes and dear thresholds for exile, and seek a country lying under another sun.
[tr. Bryce (1897)]

Others vex blind sea-ways with their oars, or rush upon the sword, pierce the courts and chambers of kings; one aims destruction at the city and her wretched homes, that he may drink from gems and sleep on Tyrian scarlet; another heaps up wealth and broods over buried gold; one hangs rapt in amaze before the Rostra; one the applause of populace and senate re-echoing again over the theatre carries open-mouthed away: joyfully they steep themselves in blood of their brethren, and exchange for exile the dear thresholds of their homes, and seek a country spread under an alien sun.
[tr. Mackail (1899)]

Others may tempt with oars the printless sea, may fling
Their lives to the sword, may press through portals and halls of a king.
This traitor hath ruined his country, hath blasted her homes, thereby
To drink from a jewelled chalice, on Orient purple to lie;
That fool hoards up his wealth, and broods o'er his buried gold;
That simple-one gazes rapt on the rostra: the loud cheers rolled
Down the theatre-seats, as Fathers and people acclaiming stood,
Have entranced yon man; men drench them with joy in their brethren's blood;
Into exile from home and its sweet, sweet threshold some have gone
Seeking a country that lieth beneath an alien sun.
[tr. Way (1912), l. 503ff]

Let strangers to such peace
Trouble with oars the boundless seas or fly
To wars, and plunder palaces of kings;
Make desolate whole cities, casting down
Their harmless gods and altars, that one's wine
May from carved rubies gush, and slumbering head
On Tyrian pillow lie. A man here hoards
His riches, dreaming of his buried gold;
Another on the rostrum's flattered pride
Stares awe-struck. Him th' applause of multitudes.
People and senators, when echoed shouts
Ring through the house approving, quite enslaves.
With civil slaughter and fraternal blood
One day such reek exultant, on the next
Lose evermore the long-loved hearth and home.
[tr. Williams (1915)]

Others brave with oars seas unknown, dash upon the sword, or press their way into courts and the chambers of kings. One wreaks ruin on a city and its wretched homes, and all to drink from a jewelled cup and sleep on Tyrian purple; another hoards wealth and gloats over buried gold; one stares in admiration at the rostra; another, open-mouthed, is carried away by the applause of high and low which rolls again and again along the benches. They steep themselves in their brothers’ blood and glory in it; they barter their sweet homes and hearths for exile and seek a country that lies beneath an alien sun.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1916)]

Other men dare the sea with their oars blindly, or dash
On the sword, or insinuate themselves into royal courts:
One ruins a whole town and the tenements of the poor
In his lust for jewelled cups, for scarlet linen to sleep on,
One piles up great wealth, gloats over his cache of gold;
One gawps at the public speakers; one is worked up to hysteria
By the plaudits of senate and people resounding across the benches:
These shed their brothers’ blood
Merrily, they barter for exile their homes beloved
And leave for countries lying under an alien sun.
[tr. Day-Lewis (1940)]

Others churn blind straits with their oars, and rush to the sword, force their way across the thresholds and into the courts of kings; [...] They rejoice, soaked in their brothers’ blood, exchange their own sweet thresholds for exile and seek a fatherland under another sun.
[tr. Miles (1980)]

Some vex with oars uncharted waters, some
Rush on cold steel, some seek to worm their way
Into the courts of kings. One is prepared
To plunge a city's homes in misery
All for a jewelled cup and a crimson bedspread;
Another broods on a buried hoard of gold.
This one is awestruck by the platform's thunder;
That one, enraptured, gapes ad the waves of applause
from high and low rolling across the theater.
Men revel steeped in brothers' blood, exchange
The hearth they love for banishment, and seek
A home in lands benath an alien sun.
[tr. Wilkinson (1982)]

Others trouble unknown seas with oars, rush on
their swords, enter the gates and courts of kings.
This man destroys a city and its wretched houses,
to drink from a jewelled cup, and sleep on Tyrian purple:
that one heaps up wealth, and broods about buried gold:
one’s stupefied, astonished by the Rostra: another, gapes,
entranced by repeated applause, from people and princes,
along the benches: men delight in steeping themselves
in their brothers’ blood, changing sweet home and hearth for exile,
and seeking a country that lies under an alien sun.
[tr. Kline (2001)]

Others slap their oars on dark, unknown seas, fall on their swords,
or thrust themselves into royal courts and palaces.
One man aims to destroy a city and its humble homes -- just
to drink from a jeweled goblet and sleep on Tyrian purple;
another stores up treasures and broods on his buried gold.
Wide-eyed, one gawks at the forum's speakers; another,
mouth agape, is swept away when lower class and upper both
applaud a statesman. Dripping with their brothers' gore,
they exult, exchanging familiar homes and hearths for exile,
they seek a fatherland that lies beneath a foreign sun.
[tr. Lembke (2004)]

Others fret with oars uncharted seas, or rush
upon the sword, or infiltrate the courts and vestibules of kings.
One visits devastation on a city and its wretched hearths
that he may slurp from a jewelled cup and snore on Tyrian purple.
Another hoards treasure and broods over buried gold.
One wonders thunderstruck at the podium, one gapes
transported by the applause of senators and commonfolk
resounding through the galleries. Drenched in their brothers' blood
they exult, and trade exile for their homes and sweet porches,
and seek a homeland under an alien sun.
[tr. Johnson (2009)]

There are those who with their oars disturb the waters
Of dangerous unknown seas, and those who rush
Against the sword, and those who insinuate
Their way into the chamber of a king:
There's one who brings down ruin on a city
And all its wretched households, in his desire
To drink from an ornate cup and go to sleep
On Tyrian purple coverlets at night;
There's the man who heaps up gold, and hides it away,
There's he who stares up stupefied at the Rostrum;
There's the open-mouthed, undone astonishment
Of the one who hears the waves and waves of the wild
Applause of the close packed crowd in the theater;
There are those who bathe in their brothers' blood, rejoicing;
And those who give up house and home for exile,
Seeking a land an alien sun shines on.
[tr. Ferry (2015)]

Billings, Josh -- Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 131 “Affurisms: Plum Pits (1)” (1874)

Dave — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 06:18:57 +0000

I never diskuss politiks nor sektarianism; i beleave in letting every man fight hiz rooster hiz own way.

[I never discuss politics nor [religious] sectarianism; I believe in letting every man fight his rooster his own way.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 131 “Affurisms: Plum Pits (1)” (1874)
(Source)

Joubert, Joseph -- Pensées [Thoughts], 1806 [tr. Auster (1983)]

Dave — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 14:48:10 +0000

History. We want to find moral lessons in it, but its only lessons are of politics, military art, etc.

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], 1806 [tr. Auster (1983)]
(Source)

I have been unable to find an analog in other translations, or in the original French.

Rogers, Will -- Column (1931-02-27), “Daily Telegram”

Dave — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 15:54:42 +0000

The whole trouble with the Republicans is their fear of an increase in income tax, especially on higher incomes. They speak of it almost like a national calamity. I really believe if it come to a vote whether to go to war with England, France and Germany combined, or raise the rate on incomes of over $100,000, they would vote war.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1931-02-27), “Daily Telegram”
(Source)

Rogers, Will -- Column (1924-11-16), “Weekly Article: A Political Autopsy” [No. 101]

Dave — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 15:10:26 +0000

You can’t beat an Administration by attacking it. You have to show some plan of improving on it.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1924-11-16), “Weekly Article: A Political Autopsy” [No. 101]
(Source)

Gladwell, Malcolm -- David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (2013)

Dave — Mon, 15 May 2023 14:07:37 +0000

Legitimacy is based on three things. First of all, the people who are asked to obey authority have to feel like they have a voice — that if they speak up, they will be heard. Second, the law has to be predictable. There has to be a reasonable expectation that the rules tomorrow are going to be roughly the same as the rules today. And third, the authority has to be fair. It can’t treat one group differently from another.

Malcolm Gladwell (b. 1963) Anglo-Canadian journalist, author, public speaker
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (2013)
(Source)

Rogers, Will -- Radio broadcast (1935-06-02)

Dave — Wed, 10 May 2023 18:44:15 +0000

Well, you know how Congress is. They’ll vote for anything if the thing they vote for will turn around and vote for them.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Radio broadcast (1935-06-02)
(Source)

Colbert, Stephen -- Remarks, White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, Washington, DC (2006-04-29)

Dave — Tue, 02 May 2023 16:20:29 +0000

Reality has a well-known liberal bias.

Stephen Colbert (b. 1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian
Remarks, White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, Washington, DC (2006-04-29)
(Source)

Colbert was speaking in his faux conservative persona, as on his Colbert Report show on Comedy Central.

Shakespeare, William -- Coriolanus, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 5ff (2.2.5-15) (c. 1608)

Dave — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 18:00:44 +0000

FIRST OFFICER: That’s a brave fellow, but he’s vengeance proud and loves not the common people.

SECOND OFFICER: ’Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them; and there be many that they have loved they know not wherefore; so that, if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground. Therefore, for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition and, out of his noble carelessness, lets them plainly see ’t.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Coriolanus, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 5ff (2.2.5-15) (c. 1608)
(Source)

Harari, Yeval Noah -- “Why Fiction Trumps Truth,” New York Times (24 May 2019)

Dave — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 16:20:56 +0000

The truth is often painful and disturbing. Hence if you stick to unalloyed reality, few people will follow you. An American presidential candidate who tells the American public the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about American history has a 100 percent guarantee of losing the elections. The same goes for candidates in all other countries. How many Israelis, Italians or Indians can stomach the unblemished truth about their nations? An uncompromising adherence to the truth is an admirable spiritual practice, but it is not a winning political strategy.

Yuval Noah Harari (b. 1976) Israeli public intellectual, historian, academic, writer [יובל נח הררי]
“Why Fiction Trumps Truth,” New York Times (24 May 2019)
(Source)

Graham, Billy -- “Billy Graham: America Is Not God’s Only Kingdom,” Parade Magazine (1 Feb 1981)

Dave — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 05:30:04 +0000

I told him to preach the Gospel. That’s our calling. I want to preserve the purity of the Gospel and the freedom of religion in America. I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. Liberals organized in the ’60s, and conservatives certainly have a right to organize in the ’80s, but it would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.

Billy Graham (1918-2018) American evangelist, revivalist, author [William Franklin Graham Jr.]
“Billy Graham: America Is Not God’s Only Kingdom,” Parade Magazine (1 Feb 1981)
(Source)

A comment Graham said he gave to Jerry Falwell, head of the Moral Majority. Usually quoted in an abbreviated version:

I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.

Black, Hugo -- Barenblatt v. United States, 360 U.S. 109, 144 (1959) [dissent]

Dave — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 14:43:16 +0000

It is this right, the right to err politically, which keeps us strong as a Nation. For no number of laws against communism can have as much effect as the personal conviction which comes from having heard its arguments and rejected them, or from having once accepted its tenets and later recognized their worthlessness.

Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)
Barenblatt v. United States, 360 U.S. 109, 144 (1959) [dissent]
(Source)

Serling, Rod -- Patterns, Introduction (1957)

Dave — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 14:48:14 +0000

The problem of censorship in television is not only a writer’s problem. What narrows his frame of reference must of necessity narrow the area of television entertainment available to the audience. When the television drama is forced to go around Robin Hood’s barn tying itself into verbal knots to evolve as stainlessly nonpartisan, whatever nonsense comes out as the replacement is the nonsense that an audience must live with on its television sets. Perhaps if some thoughtful people would write to sponsors, pleading for an adult airing of issues on a dramatic program, to counteract those cranks who hoist up the Stars and Bars whenever a play suggests a racial controversy, the sponsor or agency would realize that not to attack a controversial theme might be just as destructive as attacking it.

Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
Patterns, Introduction (1957)
(Source)

Schattschneider, E. E. -- Two Hundred Million Americans in Search of a Government (1969)

Dave — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 22:03:03 +0000

Democracy has no place for the kind of justice implied in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Democracy is a system for the resolution of conflict, not for vengeance. Simple black-white notions of right and wrong do not fit into democratic politics. Political controversies result from the fact that the issues are complex, and men may properly have differences of opinion about them. The most terrible of all over-simplifications is the notion that politics is a contest between good people and bad people.

E. E. Schattschneider (1892-1971) American political scientist [Elmer Eric Schattschneider]
Two Hundred Million Americans in Search of a Government (1969)
(Source)

Page, Benjamin -- Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It, Part 1, ch. 2 (2017) [with Martin Gilens]

Dave — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 21:21:01 +0000

When citizens are relatively equal, politics has tended to be fairly democratic. When a few individuals hold enormous amounts of wealth, democracy suffers. The reason for this pattern is simple. Through campaign contributions, lobbying, influence over public discourse, and other means, wealth can be translated into political power. When wealth is highly concentrated — that is, when a few individuals have enormous amounts of money — political power tends to be highly concentrated, too. The wealthy few tend to rule. Average citizens lose political power. Democracy declines.

Benjamin I. Page (b. 1940) American political scientist, academic, researcher
Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It, Part 1, ch. 2 (2017) [with Martin Gilens]
(Source)

Stanley, Jason -- How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, Introduction (2018)

Dave — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 14:24:44 +0000

Fascist politics includes many distinct strategies: the mythic past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, appeals to the heartland, and a dismantling of public welfare and unity.

Jason Stanley (b. 1969) American philosopher, epistemologist, academic
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, Introduction (2018)
(Source)

Stanley, Jason -- How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, ch. 4 (2018)

Dave — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 15:38:55 +0000

What happens when conspiracy theories become the coin of politics, and mainstream media and educational institutions are discredited, is that citizens no longer have a common reality that can serve as background for democratic deliberation. In such a situation, citizens have no choice but to look for markers to follow other than truth or reliability. What happens in such cases, as we see across the world, is that citizens look to politics for tribal identifications, for addressing personal grievances, and for entertainment. When news becomes sports, the strongman achieves a certain measure of popularity. Fascist politics transforms the news from a conduit of information and reasoned debate into a spectacle with the strongman as the star.

Jason Stanley (b. 1969) American philosopher, epistemologist, academic
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, ch. 4 (2018)
(Source)

Black, Hugo -- Turner v. United States, 396 U.S. 398, 426 (1970) [dissenting]

Dave — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 14:36:51 +0000

Our Constitution was not written in the sands to be washed away by each wave of new judges blown in by each successive political wind that brings new political administrations into temporary power.

Hugo Black (1886-1971) American politician and jurist, US Supreme Court Justice (1937-71)
Turner v. United States, 396 U.S. 398, 426 (1970) [dissenting]
(Source)

Abraham, Daniel -- Leviathan Wakes, ch. 19 (2011) [with Ty Franck]

Dave — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 14:31:32 +0000

It’s the problem with politics. Your enemies are often your allies. And vice versa.

Daniel Abraham (b. 1969) American writer [pseud. James S. A. Corey (with Ty Franck), M. L. N. Hanover]
Leviathan Wakes, ch. 19 (2011) [with Ty Franck]
(Source)

Herbert, Frank -- Dune, Book 3 “The Prophet” (1965)

Dave — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 15:58:24 +0000

When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong — faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late.

Frank Herbert (1920-1986) American writer
Dune, Book 3 “The Prophet” (1965)
(Source)

Jessica, quoting a Bene Gesserit proverb.

In Appendix 2, there is reference to another Bene Gesserit teaching: "When religion and politics ride the same cart, when that cart is driven by a living holy man (baraka), nothing can stand in their path."

Hertzberg, Hendrik -- Speech, Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs (17 Feb 1995)

Dave — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 17:38:24 +0000

We are never going to have someone who’s perfect [for President]. We have to change our system so that it can operate with flawed people.

Hendrik Hertzberg (b. 1943) American journalist, editor, speech writer, political commentator
Speech, Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs (17 Feb 1995)

Lec, Stanislaw -- More Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane nowe] (1964) [tr. Gałązka (1969)]

Dave — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 15:59:05 +0000

Politics: a Trojan horse race.

Stanislaw Lec (1909-1966) Polish aphorist, poet, satirist
More Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane nowe] (1964) [tr. Gałązka (1969)]
(Source)

James, P. D. -- “Mortal Consequences,” A Taste for Death (1986)

Dave — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 17:26:51 +0000

One of the things he deplored about the loss of religion, it meant that people elevated politics into a religious faith and that was dangerous.

P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]
“Mortal Consequences,” A Taste for Death (1986)
(Source)

Aristotle -- Nicomachean Ethics [Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια], Book 5, ch. 1 (5.1.15-16) / 1129b.33ff (c. 325 BC) [tr. Crisp (2000)]

Dave — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 19:01:15 +0000

There are many people who can exercise virtue in their own affairs, but are unable to do so in their relations with others. This is why the aphorism of Bias, “Office will reveal the man”, seems a good one, since an official is, by virtue of his position, engaged with other people and the community at large.

[πολλοὶ γὰρ ἐν μὲν τοῖς οἰκείοις τῇ ἀρετῇ δύνανται χρῆσθαι, ἐν δὲ τοῖς πρὸς ἕτερον ἀδυνατοῦσιν. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο εὖ δοκεῖ ἔχειν τὸ τοῦ Βίαντος, ὅτι ἀρχὴ ἄνδρα δείξει: πρὸς ἕτερον γὰρ καὶ ἐν κοινωνίᾳ ἤδη ὁ ἄρχων.]

Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Nicomachean Ethics [Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια], Book 5, ch. 1 (5.1.15-16) / 1129b.33ff (c. 325 BC) [tr. Crisp (2000)]
(Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

I mean, there are many who can practise virtue in the regulation of their own personal conduct who are wholly unable to do it in transactions with their neighbour. And for this reason that saying of Bias is thought to be a good one, “Rule will show what a man is;” for he who bears Rule is necessarily in contact with others, i.e., in a community.
[tr. Chase (1847), ch. 2]

For many there be who can make good use of their virtue in their own matters, but not towards their fellow-man. And, hence, Bias would seem to have said well, saying that, "It is authority that shows the man." For whosoever is in authority stands ipso facto in relation to his fellow-man, in that he is a fellow-member of the body politic.
[tr. Williams (1869)]

For there are many people who are capable of exhibiting virtue at home, but incapable of exhibiting it in relation to their neighbors. Accordingly there seems to be good sense in saying of Bias that "office will reveal a man," for one who is in office is at once brought into relation and association with others.
[tr. Welldon (1892)]

For there are many who can be virtuous enough at home, but fail in dealing with their neighbours. This is the reason why people commend the saying of Bias, “Office will show the man;” for he that is in office ipso facto stands in relation to others, and has dealings with them.
[tr. Peters (1893)]

For many men can exercise virtue in their own affairs, but not in their relations to their neighbour. This is why the saying of Bias is thought to be true, that "rule will show the man"; for a ruler is necessarily in relation to other men and a member of a society.
[tr. Ross (1908)]

For there are many who can practise virtue in their own private affairs but cannot do so in their relations with another. This is why we approve the saying of Bias, "Office will show a man"; for in office one is brought into relation with others and becomes a member of a community.
[tr. Rackham (1934)]

For many people are able to use their virtue in what properly belongs to themselves, but unable to do so in issues relating to another person. And this is why Bias' saying, "ruling office shows forth the man," seems good, since a ruler is automatically in relation to another person and in a community with him.
[tr. Reeve (1948)]

I say this because there are plenty of people who can behave uprightly in their own affairs, but are incapable of doing so in relation to somebody else. That is why Bias's saying "Office will reveal the man" is felt to be valid; because an official is eo ipso in relation to, and associated with, somebody else.
[tr. Thomson/Tredennick (1976)]

For many people are able to use virtue in dealing with the members of their household, but in their affairs together regarding another, they are unable to do so. And on this account, the saying of Bias seems good, that "office will show the man." For he who rules is already in relation to another and within the community.
[tr. Bartlett/Collins (2011)]

Wallace, David Foster -- McCain’s Promise (2006)

Dave — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 15:50:44 +0000

If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don’t bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible psychological reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and watching MTV on primary day. By all means stay home if you want, but don’t bullshit yourself that you’re not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard’s vote.

David Foster Wallace (1962-2008) American author, academic
McCain’s Promise (2006)
(Source)

Gaiman, Neil -- Blog entry (2003-06-15), “Walking Down the Street Naked, Possibly with a Mullet”

Dave — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 16:55:57 +0000

Of course, when stood next to the choice of American political parties (“So, would you like Right Wing, or Supersized Right Wing with Extra Fries?”) my English fuzzy middle-of-the-roadness probably translates easily as bomb-throwing Trotskyist, but when I get to chat to proper lefties like Ken MacLeod or China Mieville I feel myself retreating rapidly back into the woffly Guardian-reading why-can’t-people-just-be-nice-to-each-otherhood of the politically out of his depth.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Blog entry (2003-06-15), “Walking Down the Street Naked, Possibly with a Mullet”
(Source)

When asked whether (and denying) he is a Communist.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1946-11-29), “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper

Dave — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 19:19:36 +0000

When one considers how things have gone since 1930 or thereabouts, it is not easy to believe in the survival of civilization. I do not argue from this that the only thing to do is to adjure practical politics, retire to some remote place and concentrate either on individual salvation or on building up self-supporting communities against the day when the atom bombs have done their work. I think one must continue the political struggle, just as a doctor must try to save the life of a patient who is probably going to die. But I do suggest that we shall get nowhere unless we start by recognizing that political behaviour is largely non-rational, that the world is suffering from some kind of mental disease which must be diagnosed before it can be cured.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-11-29), “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper
(Source)

Sometimes condensed: "Politics is mostly non-rational; the world is suffering from some kind of mental disorder which must be diagnosed before it can be cured."

Snyder, Timothy -- The Red Prince, “Orange: European Revolutions” (2008)

Dave — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 14:31:45 +0000

All citizens do have a measure of control, at least in democracies where their votes are counted, of how they belong to their nations. Perhaps they will have more confidence in unconventional choices if they see that each nation’s founders were disobedient and unpredictable, men and women of imagination and ambition. The steel of every national monument was once molten.

Timothy Snyder (b. 1969) American historian, author
The Red Prince, “Orange: European Revolutions” (2008)
(Source)

Snyder, Timothy -- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017)

Dave — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 13:48:29 +0000

Life is political, not because the world cares about how you feel, but because the world reacts to what you do.

Timothy Snyder (b. 1969) American historian, author
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017)
(Source)

Abrams, Stacey -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 15:22:12 +0000

You don’t get the power you ask for, you get the power you take.

Stacey Abrams (b. 1973) American politician, lawyer, activist
(Attributed)

See Baldwin.

Harari, Yeval Noah -- “Why Fiction Trumps Truth,” New York Times (24 May 2019)

Dave — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:32:22 +0000

If political loyalty is signaled by believing a true story, anyone can fake it. But believing ridiculous and outlandish stories exacts greater cost, and is therefore a better signal of loyalty. If you believe your leader only when he or she tells the truth, what does that prove? In contrast, if you believe your leader even when he or she builds castles in the air, that’s loyalty! Shrewd leaders might sometimes deliberately say nonsensical things as a way to distinguish reliable devotees from fair-weather supporters.

Yuval Noah Harari (b. 1976) Israeli public intellectual, historian, academic, writer [יובל נח הררי]
“Why Fiction Trumps Truth,” New York Times (24 May 2019)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)

Dave — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 14:25:57 +0000

I think one must engage in politics — using the word in a wide sense — and that one must have preferences: that is, one must recognise that some causes are objectively better than others, even if they are advanced by equally bad means. As for the nationalistic loves and hatreds that I have spoken of, they are part of the make-up of most of us, whether we like it or not. Whether it is possible to get rid of them I do not know, but I do believe that it is possible to struggle against them, and that this is essentially a moral effort. It is a question first of all of discovering what one really is, what one’s own feelings really are, and then of making allowance for the inevitable bias.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)

Dave — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 16:43:25 +0000

History is thought of largely in nationalist terms, and such things as the Inquisition, the tortures of the Star Chamber, the exploits of the English buccaneers (Sir Francis Drake, for instance, who was given to sinking Spanish prisoners alive), the Reign of Terror, the heroes of the Mutiny blowing hundreds of Indians from the guns, or Cromwell’s soldiers slashing Irishwomen’s faces with razors, become morally neutral or even meritorious when it is felt that they were done in the “right” cause. If one looks back over the past quarter of a century, one finds that there was hardly a single year when atrocity stories were not being reported from some part of the world; and yet in not one single case were these atrocities — in Spain, Russia, China, Hungary, Mexico, Amritsar, Smyrna — believed in and disapproved of by the English intelligentsia as a whole. Whether such deeds were reprehensible, or even whether they happened, was always decided according to political predilection.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)
(Source)

West, Rebecca -- In The Sunday Telegraph, London (1981)

Dave — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 18:35:31 +0000

After any disturbance (such as two world wars coinciding with a period of growing economic and monetary incomprehensibility) we find our old concepts inadequate and look for new ones. But it unfortunately happens that the troubled times which produce an appetite for new ideas are the least propitious for clear thinking.

Rebecca West (1892-1983) British author, journalist, literary critic, travel writer [pseud. for Cicily Isabel Fairfield]
In The Sunday Telegraph, London (1981)
(Source)

Moynihan, Daniel Patrick -- Lecture (1985-04-09), “Family and Nation: Common Ground?” Godkin Lectures, Harvard University

Dave — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 15:38:36 +0000

The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003) American politician, diplomat, sociologist
Lecture (1985-04-09), “Family and Nation: Common Ground?” Godkin Lectures, Harvard University
(Source)

Collected in his Family and Nation, ch. 3 (1986).

Aristotle -- Politics [Πολιτικά], Book 1, ch. 2, sec. 10 / 1253a.7-11 [tr. Jowett (1885)]

Dave — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 21:32:14 +0000

Now, that man is more of a political animal than bees or any other gregarious animals is evident. Nature, as we often say, makes nothing in vain, and man is the only animal whom she has endowed with the gift of speech.

[διότι δὲ πολιτικὸν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ζῷον πάσης μελίττης καὶ παντὸς ἀγελαίου ζῴου μᾶλλον, δῆλον. οὐθὲν γάρ, ὡς φαμέν, μάτην ἡ φύσις ποιεῖ·]

Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Politics [Πολιτικά], Book 1, ch. 2, sec. 10 / 1253a.7-11 [tr. Jowett (1885)]
(Source)

Original Greek. Alternate translations:

"And that man is a social animal in a fuller sense than any bee or gregarious animal is evident; for nature, we say, makes nothing without an object, and man is the only animal that possesses rational speech." [tr. Bolland (1877)]
"The gift of speech also evidently proves that man is a more social animal than the bees, or any of the herding cattle: for nature, as we say, does nothing in vain, and man is the only animal who enjoys it." [tr. Ellis (1912)]
"And why man is a political animal in a greater measure than any bee or any gregarious animal is clear. For nature, as we declare, does nothing without purpose; and man alone of the animals possesses speech." [tr. Rackham (1932)]
"That man is much more a political animal than any kind of bee or any herd animal is clear. For, as we assert, nature does nothing in vain; and man alone among the animals has speech." [tr. Lord (1984)]
"It is also clear why a human is more of a political animal than any bee or any other gregarious animal. For nature does nothing pointlessly, as we say, and a human being alone among the animals has speech." [tr. Reeve (2007)]
"It is clear that man is a political animal, more than every bee and herd animal: for nature makes nothing in vain and man alone of living things has reason." [tr. @sentantiq (2011)]

Ivins, Molly -- Essay (1998-01), “Introduction,” You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You (1998)

Dave — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 18:13:15 +0000

Our political system has been thoroughly corrupted, and by the usual suspect — money, what else? The corruption is open, obscene, and unmistakable. The way campaigns are financed is a system of legalized bribery. We have a government of special interests, by special interests, and for special interests. And that will not change until we change the way campaigns are financed.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1998-01), “Introduction,” You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You (1998)
(Source)

Richards, Ann -- “Sadder but Wiser,” interview with Paul Burka, Texas Monthly (Apr 1994)

Dave — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 15:45:09 +0000

I’ve always said that in politics, your enemies can’t hurt you, but your friends will kill you.

Ann Richards (1933-2006) American politician [Dorothy Ann Willis Richards]
“Sadder but Wiser,” interview with Paul Burka, Texas Monthly (Apr 1994)
(Source)

Referring to appointees whose failures had caused her political problems as governor.

Garfield, James A. -- Speech, Chatauqua (1 Apr 1880)

Dave — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 18:17:17 +0000

I would rather be defeated than make capital out of my religion.

James A. Garfield (1831-1881) US President (1881), lawyer, lay preacher, educator
Speech, Chatauqua (1 Apr 1880)
(Source)

Goethe, Johann von -- Conversation with Friedrich von Müller (29 Dec 1825)

Dave — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 16:54:22 +0000

In politics as on the sickbed, people toss from one side to the other, fancying that they will be more comfortable.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Conversation with Friedrich von Müller (29 Dec 1825)
(Source)

In Biedermann, Goethes Gespräche, Gesamtausgabe, #2379 (1909). Usual variant: "In politics, as on the sickbed, people toss from one side to the other, thinking they will be more comfortable."

Sowell, Thomas -- “Student Loans,” Is Reality Optional? (1993)

Dave — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 22:47:29 +0000

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

Thomas Sowell (b. 1930) American economist and political commentator
“Student Loans,” Is Reality Optional? (1993)
(Source)

Hofstadter, Douglas -- “Pseudo-Conservatism Revisited — 1965,” sec. 4 (1965)

Dave — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 19:29:57 +0000

[The right wing] believe that their prestige in the community, even indeed their self-esteem, depends on having these values honored in public. Besides their economic expectations, people have deep emotional commitments in other spheres — religion, morals, culture, race relations — which they also hope to see realized in political action. Status politics seeks not to advance perceived material interests but to express grievances and resentments about such matters, to press claims upon society to give deference to non-economic values.

Douglas R. Hofstadter (b. 1945) American academic, cognitive scientist, author
“Pseudo-Conservatism Revisited — 1965,” sec. 4 (1965)
(Source)

Starhawk -- Blog post (2016-11-07), “Pre-Election Day Thoughts”

Dave — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 19:08:28 +0000

Of course I vote! If you’re a woman, or a person of color, or a person who doesn’t own property, or even a white male who doesn’t belong to the nobility, centuries of struggle and many deaths have bought you the right to vote. I vote to keep faith with peasant rebels and suffragist hunger strikers and civil rights workers braving the lynch mobs of the South, if for no other reason. But there is another reason — because who we vote for has an enormous impact on real peoples’ lives.

Starhawk (b. 1951) American writer, activist, feminist theologian [b. Miriam Simos]
Blog post (2016-11-07), “Pre-Election Day Thoughts”
(Source)

Solnit, Rebecca -- Facebook (17 Oct 2016)

Dave — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 21:23:10 +0000

Build movements. Vote with your values, but vote strategically. Voting isn’t a Valentine. It’s a chess move.

Rebecca Solnit (b. 1961) American writer, historian, activist
Facebook (17 Oct 2016)
(Source)

Solnit is credited with the core message of the last two sentences. She indicates (including from that Facebook post) that it was something she had said that was extracted and perhaps tweaked by May Boeve. E.g., "That 2016 aphorism that I sort of said and May Boeve made into this stand-alone slogan." (1 Nov 2018) "I said that off the cuff in 2016 and May Boeve caught it and it went on to have a nice life. It's also not the only chess move you get." (11 Aug 2020).

Variants:

"Voting is a chess move, not a valentine. And here's the joy of being politically engaged all year round every year; you get to work with a whole lot of chess pieces and players and strategies and long-term visions, so you don't agonize over whether this little hop with a pawn we call voting defines you. You get to define yourself by what you're passionately committed to, by who you align with, by your dreams and your visions, you get to move a lot of pieces a lot of times, you get heroic allies, and you play to win above, beyond, around elections. But you vote, because you know it matters too." (7 Nov 2016)
"I think of voting as a chess move, not a valentine. It’s just a little part of the picture of how we make the world." ("The 2000 Election Unleashed Disaster on the World. We Can’t Let that Happen Again in 2016," The Nation (3 Nov 2016))
"A vote is not a valentine. You are not confessing your love for the candidate. It's a chess move for the world you want to live in."
"Voting isn't a valentine, it's a chess move. Just one of many with one of your many pieces, if you're using what you've been given."

Gifford, William -- The Baviad, and Mæviad (1797)

Dave — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 18:10:24 +0000

I can only say that politics, like misery, “bring a man acquainted with strange bedfellows.”

William Gifford (1756-1826) English critic, editor, poet, satirist
The Baviad, and Mæviad (1797)
(Source)

First recorded connection between Shakespeare's quote on misery and politics, leading to the eventual "Politics makes for strange bedfellows."

Stalin, Josef -- Leninism, Vol. 2 (1926) [tr. Paul (1933)]

Dave — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 19:04:07 +0000

The art of leadership is a serious matter. One must not lag behind a movement, because to do so is to become isolated from the masses. But one must not rush ahead, for to rush ahead is to lose contact with the masses. He who wishes to lead a movement and at the same time keep touch with the vast masses, must conduct a fight on two fronts, against those who lag behind and against those who rush ahead.

Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Georgian revolutionary and Soviet dictator
Leninism, Vol. 2 (1926) [tr. Paul (1933)]
(Source)

Often elided, "He who wishes to lead a movement must conduct a fight on two fronts, against those who lag behind and against those who rush ahead."

Carville, James -- Interview with Joan Walsh, Salon (11 Mar 2002)

Dave — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 23:50:03 +0000

What I’m suggesting is, stand for yourself, be for something and the hell with it. Because the hand-wringers and the editorialists and the sigh-and-pontificate crowd will be against you, whatever you do.

James Carville (b. 1944) American political consultant
Interview with Joan Walsh, Salon (11 Mar 2002)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1944-10-13), “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper

Dave — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 16:42:47 +0000

Artists don’t so much object to aesthetic discipline. Architects will design theatres or churches equally readily, writers will switch from the three-volume novel to the one-volume, or from the play to the film, according to the demand. But the point is that this is a political age. A writer inevitably writes — and less directly this applies to all the arts — about contemporary events, and his impulse is to tell what he believes to be the truth. But no government, no big organization, will pay for the truth. To take a crude example: can you imagine the British Government commissioning E. M. Forster to write A Passage to India? He could only write it because he was not dependent on State aid.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1944-10-13), “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper
(Source)

On the limits of public support for the arts.

Inge, William Ralph -- “Institutionalism and Mysticism” (1914), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1914)

Dave — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 19:31:42 +0000

The philosophical historian must admit that all the changes which the Catholic Church has undergone — its concessions to Pagan superstition, its secular power, its ruthless extirpation of rebels against its authority, its steadily growing centralisation and autocracy — were forced upon it in the struggle for existence. Those who wish that Church history had been different are wishing the impossible, or wishing that the Church had perished. But this argument is not valid as a defence of a divine institution. It is rather a merciless exposure of what happens, and must happen, to a great idea when it is enslaved by an institution of its own creation. The political organisation which has grown up round the idea ends by strangling it, and continues to fight for its own preservation by the methods which govern the policy of all other political organisations –force, fraud, and accommodation.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Institutionalism and Mysticism” (1914), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1914)
(Source)

McCarthy, Mary -- “American Realist Playwrights,” On the Contrary (1961)

Dave — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 22:24:41 +0000

A politician or political thinker who calls himself a political realist is usually boasting that he sees politics, so to speak, in the raw; he is generally a proclaimed cynic and pessimist who makes it his business to look behind words and fine speeches for the motive. This motive is always low.

Mary McCarthy (1912-1989) American author, critic, political activist
“American Realist Playwrights,” On the Contrary (1961)
(Source)

MacIntyre, Alasdair -- After Virtue: A Study of Moral Theory, ch. 17 (1981)

Dave — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 18:19:54 +0000

Modern politics cannot be a matter of genuine moral consensus. And it is not. Modern politics is civil war carried on by other means.

Alasdair MacIntyre (b. 1929) Scottish philosopher
After Virtue: A Study of Moral Theory, ch. 17 (1981)
(Source)

Howe, Irving -- “The Agony of the Campus,” Dissent #16 (Sep-Oct 1969)

Dave — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 20:36:37 +0000

Politics is, among other things, the art of anticipating consequences, and even trying to anticipate unfamiliar consequences.

Irving Howe (1920-1993) American literary and social critic [b. Irving Horenstein]
“The Agony of the Campus,” Dissent #16 (Sep-Oct 1969)
(Source)

Vaughan, Roger J -- In Stephen Labaton, “Presidential Candidates Ignore Banking Problem,” New York Times (7 Oct 1992)

Dave — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 23:23:53 +0000

The art of politics is ostentatious giving and surreptitious taking.

Roger J. Vaughan (b. 1946) American economist, economic analyst
In Stephen Labaton, “Presidential Candidates Ignore Banking Problem,” New York Times (7 Oct 1992)
(Source)

Antisthenes -- Fragment 104 [tr. Laurén]

Dave — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 15:40:52 +0000

It is strange that we sort the wheat from the chaff and the unfit from the fit in war, but we do not excuse evil men from the service of the state.

[ἄτοπον ἔφη τοῦ μὲν σίτου τὰς αἴρας ἐκλέγειν καὶ ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ τοὺς ἀχρείους, ἐν δὲ πολιτείᾳ τοὺς πονηροὺς μὴ παραιτεῖσθαι]

Antisthenes (c. 445 - c. 365 BC) Greek Cynic philosopher
Fragment 104 [tr. Laurén]
(Source)

In Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, ch. 1.

Alt. trans.:

"He used to say that it is strange that we sift out the chaff from the wheat and those useless for war, but we do not forbid scoundrels in politics." [@sentantiq (3 Jun 2020)]
"He used to say that it was strange that we separate the wheat from the chaff, the useless in war, but we do not ban wicked men from public life." [@sentantiq (21 Feb 2017)]
"That it seemed very absurd to separate the chaff from the wHeat, to discharge a coward from the army, and not to extrude the envious from the state." [Source (1753)]
"'It is strange,' said he, 'that we weed out the darnel from the corn and the unfit in war, but do not excuse evil men from the service of the state.'" [Loeb Classical (1925)]

Whipple, Edwin Percy -- “Character” (1857), Character and Characteristic Men (1866)

Dave — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 23:41:21 +0000

One great secret of the art of politics all over the world is never to push evil or beneficial measures to that point where resistance commences on the part of the governed.

Edwin Percy Whipple 1819-1886) American essayist and critic
“Character” (1857), Character and Characteristic Men (1866)
(Source)

Sinclair, Upton -- Letter to John Reed (22 Oct 1918)

Dave — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 15:35:12 +0000

American capitalism is predatory, and American politics are corrupt: The same thing is true in England and the same in France; but in all these three countries the dominating fact is that whenever the people get ready to change the government, they can change it.

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) American writer, journalist, activist, politician
Letter to John Reed (22 Oct 1918)
(Source)

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Epistulae ad Quintum fratrem [Letters to brother Quintus], Book 2, Letter 15, sec. 5 (2.15.5) (54 BC) [tr. Shackleton Bailey (1978), # 18, 2.14]

Dave — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 23:58:21 +0000

There is some hope of elections, but doubtful; some suspicion of a Dictatorship, but that too not definite; peace reigns in the Forum, but it’s the peace of a senile community rather than a contented one.

[Erat non nulla spes comitiorum sed incerta, erat aliqua suspicio dictaturae, ne ea quidem certa, summum otium forense sed senescentis magis civitatis quam acquiescentis]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Quintum fratrem [Letters to brother Quintus], Book 2, Letter 15, sec. 5 (2.15.5) (54 BC) [tr. Shackleton Bailey (1978), # 18, 2.14]
(Source)

Describing the situation in Rome. This letter is identified by various editors and translators (besides their own ordinal numbers) as 2.13, 2.14, 2.15, and 2.15A.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

There was some expectation of the comitia, but a doubtful one: there was some suspicion of a dictatorship, but not even that was certain. There is a perfect cessation of all business in the courts of law, but more as if the state was growing indolent from age than from real tranquility.
[tr. Watson (1855), 2.15A.4]

There is some hope of the elections taking place, but it is an uncertain one. There is some latent idea of a dictatorship, but neither is that confirmed. There is profound calm in the forum, but it is rather the calm of decrepitude than content.
[tr. Shuckburgh (1900), # 140, 2.13]

Tis some hope of the elections being held, but it is a vague one; there is also some suspicion of a dictatorship, but even that has no certain foundation; the forum is profoundly tranquil, but that indicates senile decay, rather than acquiescence, on the part of the State.
[tr. Williams (Loeb) (1928), 2.15A]

We have no small hope in our elections, but it is still uncertain. There is some suspicion of a dictatorship. We have peace in public but it is the calm of an old and tired state, not one giving consent.
[tr. @sentantiq (2020), # 19]

Wills, Garry -- Confessions of a Conservative, ch. 15 (1979)

Dave — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 19:40:03 +0000

Politics demands a great capacity for self-deception, which rescues the politician from hypocrisy. He can normally manage to believe what he is saying for the time it takes him to say it. This gives him a certain sincerity even when he is saying opposite things to opposite people.

Garry Wills (b. 1934) American author, journalist, historian
Confessions of a Conservative, ch. 15 (1979)
(Source)

Kennedy, John F. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 29 May 2020 22:45:51 +0000

In politics you have no friends, only allies.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
(Attributed)

A frequent maxim of Kennedy's.

Louis XIV -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2020 18:34:45 +0000

Every time I fill a vacant office I make a hundred malcontents and one ingrate.

Louis XIV (1638-1715) French monarch (1643-1715) [Louis the Great, the Sun King)
(Attributed)

Quoted in Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV, ch. 26 (1751).

Kempton, Murray -- Column on the 1960 Republican National Convention, Chicago (28 Jul 1960)

Dave — Fri, 15 May 2020 19:56:22 +0000

A political convention is just not a place where you come away with any trace of faith in human nature.

Murray Kempton (1917-1997) American journalist.
Column on the 1960 Republican National Convention, Chicago (28 Jul 1960)
(Source)

Schlesinger, Arthur -- The Age of Roosevelt, ch. 33, sec. 8 (1960)

Dave — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 19:57:02 +0000

Political campaigns tend to be exercises in progressive degeneration. The steady increase, week after week, in excitement and strain and weariness produces an oversimplification of issues, an over dramatization of alternatives, a growing susceptibility to extreme and catastrophic statements. Candidates find themselves shouting things in the fall that they would never dream of whispering in the summer.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007) American historian, author, social critic
The Age of Roosevelt, ch. 33, sec. 8 (1960)
(Source)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essay (1860), “Power,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 2

Dave — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 20:28:55 +0000

Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all management of human affairs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1860), “Power,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 2
(Source)

Based on a course of lectures by that name first delivered in Pittsburg (1851-03).

Lynn, Jonathan -- Yes Minister, 02×07 “A Question of Loyalty” (BBC2 Television) (1981-04-09) [with Anthony Jay]

Dave — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 15:37:24 +0000

BETTY OLDHAM: Look, Sir Humphrey, whatever we ask the Minister, he says is an administrative question for you, and whatever we ask you, you say is a policy question for the Minister. How do you suggest we find out what is going on?

SIR HUMPHREY: Yes, yes, yes, I do see that there is a real dilemma here. In that, while it has been government policy to regard policy as a responsibility of Ministers and administration as a responsibility of Officials, the questions of administrative policy can cause confusion between the policy of administration and the administration of policy, especially when responsibility for the administration of the policy of administration conflicts, or overlaps with, responsibility for the policy of the administration of policy.

BETTY OLDHAM: Well, that’s a load of meaningless drivel. Isn’t it?

SIR HUMPHREY: It’s not for me to comment on government policy. You must ask the Minister.

Jonathan Lynn (b. 1943) English actor, comedy writer, director
Yes Minister, 02×07 “A Question of Loyalty” (BBC2 Television) (1981-04-09) [with Anthony Jay]

Brown, Rita Mae -- In Her Day, Preface, “A Note to the Feminist Reader” (1976)

Dave — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 20:35:56 +0000

In art as in politics we must deal with people as they are, not as we wish them to be. Only by working with the real can you get closer to the ideal.

Rita Mae Brown (b. 1944) American author, playwright
In Her Day, Preface, “A Note to the Feminist Reader” (1976)
(Source)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Journal (1848-10)

Dave — Sun, 09 Jun 2019 23:39:35 +0000

The salvation of America and of the human race depends on the next election, if we believe the newspapers. But so it was last year, and so it was the year before, and our fathers believed the same thing forty years ago.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1848-10)
(Source)

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- Speech, Fourth Annual Republican Women’s National Conference, Washington, DC (6 Mar 1956)

Dave — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:53:26 +0000

If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Fourth Annual Republican Women’s National Conference, Washington, DC (6 Mar 1956)
(Source)

Trumbo, Dalton -- Spartacus (1960) [novel by Howard Fast]

Dave — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 00:32:55 +0000

GRACCHUS: You know, this republic of ours is something like a rich widow. Most Romans love her as their mother, but Crassus dreams of marrying the old girl, to put it politely.

Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) American screenwriter and novelist [James Dalton Trumbo]
Spartacus (1960) [novel by Howard Fast]

Gandhi, Mohandas -- In Young India (12 May 1920)

Dave — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 20:15:29 +0000

If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircle us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, political ethicist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Young India (12 May 1920)

Mencken, H. L. -- “Bayard vs. Lionheart,” The Baltimore Evening Sun (26 Jul 1920)

Dave — Wed, 03 May 2017 20:15:40 +0000

As democracy is perfected, the office [of the President] represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“Bayard vs. Lionheart,” The Baltimore Evening Sun (26 Jul 1920)

Variant: "As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron."

Verification and discussion of this quotation here, here, and here.

Orwell, George -- Essay (1946-04), “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon Magazine

Dave — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 20:21:56 +0000

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?
But you are not obliged to go to all this trouble. You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you — even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent — and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself.
It is at this point that the special connection between politics and the debasement of language becomes clear.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-04), “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon Magazine
(Source)

Twain, Mark -- “The Character of Man” (23 Jan 1906), in The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (2010)

Dave — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 00:29:10 +0000

Look at the tyranny of party — at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty — a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes — and which turns voters into chattels, slaves, rabbits, and all the while their masters, and they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the fantastic contradiction; and forgetting or ignoring that their fathers and the churches shouted the same blasphemies a generation earlier when they were closing their doors against the hunted slave, beating his handful of humane defenders with Bible texts and billies, and pocketing the insults and licking the shoes of his Southern Master.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
“The Character of Man” (23 Jan 1906), in The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (2010)

Adams, John -- Letter (1813-07-09) to Thomas Jefferson

Dave — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 01:53:08 +0000

While all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a Stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than 3 or 4 thousand years ago. What is the Reason? I say Parties and Factions will not Suffer, or permit Improvements to be made. As Soon as one Man hints at an improvement his Rival opposes it. No sooner has one Party discovered or invented an Amelioration of the condition of Man or the order of Society, than the opposite Party, belies it, misconstrues it, misrepresents it, ridicules it, insults it, and persecutes it.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1813-07-09) to Thomas Jefferson
(Source)

Adams, John -- Letter (1776-04) to George Wythe, “Thoughts on Government”

Dave — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 18:52:11 +0000

We ought to consider, what is the end of government, before we determine which is the best form. Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all Divines and moral Philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow, that the form of government, which communicates ease, comfort, security, or in one word happiness to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best.

Adams, Henry -- The Education of Henry Adams, ch. 22 (1907)

Dave — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 01:14:18 +0000

Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.

Henry Adams (1838-1918) American journalist, historian, academic, novelist
The Education of Henry Adams, ch. 22 (1907)

Amiel, Henri-Frédéric -- Journal (17 Jun 1852) [tr. Ward (1887)]

Dave — Tue, 08 Nov 2016 05:12:15 +0000

The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man which it forms.

Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881) Swiss philosopher, poet, critic
Journal (17 Jun 1852) [tr. Ward (1887)]

Adams, Henry -- The Education of Henry Adams, ch. 1 (1907)

Dave — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 04:01:09 +0000

Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, had always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

Henry Adams (1838-1918) American journalist, historian, academic, novelist
The Education of Henry Adams, ch. 1 (1907)

Restated by George Will in saying that the value of political parties was that "They organize our animosities." Interview, The Colbert Report (3 Jun 2008) at 6:43.

Addams, Jane -- Newer Ideals of Peace, “Utilization of Women in City Government” (1907)

Dave — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 02:24:56 +0000

A city is in many respects a great business corporation, but in other respects it is enlarged housekeeping. … May we not say that city housekeeping has failed partly because women, the traditional housekeepers, have not been consulted as to its multiform activities?

Jane Addams (1860-1935) American reformer, suffragist, philosopher, author
Newer Ideals of Peace, “Utilization of Women in City Government” (1907)

Adams, Franklin P. -- Nods and Becks, “Inside ‘Information, Please!'” (1944)

Dave — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 02:52:00 +0000

When the political columnists say “Every thinking man,” they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to “Every intelligent voter,” they mean everybody who is going to vote for them.

Franklin Pierce Adams (1881-1960) American journalist and humorist ["F. P. A."]
Nods and Becks, “Inside ‘Information, Please!'” (1944)
(Source)

Ellul, Jacques -- The Presence of the Kingdom [Présence au monde moderne] (1948) [tr. Wyon (1951)]

Dave — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 23:48:50 +0000

Every time the Church has gotten into the political game, no matter what the manner of her entry, no matter what her opinion or posing choices in a political situation with regard to an institution, she has been drawn every time into a betrayal, either of revealed truth or of the incarnate love. She has become involved every time in apostasy. … Politics is the Church’s worst problem. It is her constant temptation, the occasion of her greatest disasters, the trap continually set for her by the Prince of this world.

Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) French philosopher, law professor, sociologist, theologian
The Presence of the Kingdom [Présence au monde moderne] (1948) [tr. Wyon (1951)]

Deng Xiaoping -- Comment (1983)

Dave — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 15:38:32 +0000

The United States brags about its political system, but the President says one thing during the election, something else when he takes office, something else at midterm and something else when he leaves.

Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) Chinese revolutionary, politician, statesman [Teng Hsiao-p'ing]
Comment (1983)
(Source)

When asked by a group of American professors about China's political stability. Quoted in Philip West and Frans A. M. Alting von Geusau, The Pacific Rim and the Western World: Strategic, Economic, and Cultural Perspectives (1987).

Hayes, Rutherford -- Inaugural address (5 Mar 1877)

Dave — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 21:48:03 +0000

He serves his party best who serves the country best.

Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) American attorney, soldier, politician, US President (1877-81)
Inaugural address (5 Mar 1877)

Maher, Bill -- Real Time with Bill Maher (24 Jul 2009)

Dave — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 13:48:44 +0000

If conservatives get to call universal health care “socialized medicine,” then I get to call private, for-profit health care “soulless, vampire bastards making money off human pain.”

William "Bill" Maher (b. 1956) American comedian, political commentator, critic, television host.
Real Time with Bill Maher (24 Jul 2009)

Carter, Jimmy -- Speech, Southern Baptist Brotherhood Commission (16 Jun 1978)

Dave — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 19:40:34 +0000

You can’t divorce religious belief and public service. I’ve never detected any conflict between God’s will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other.

Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) American politician, US President (1977-1981), Nobel laureate [James Earl Carter, Jr.]
Speech, Southern Baptist Brotherhood Commission (16 Jun 1978)

Reagan, Ronald -- Remarks, business conference, Los Angeles (2 Mar 1977)

Dave — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 17:52:31 +0000

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

Ronald Reagan (1911-2006) US President (1981-89), politician, actor
Remarks, business conference, Los Angeles (2 Mar 1977)

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- Speech, Republican Lincoln Day Dinners (28 Jan 1954)

Dave — Tue, 17 May 2016 20:52:14 +0000

For politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage. Politics must be the concern of every citizen who wants to see our national well-being increased and our international leadership strengthened. In that combined sense, politics is the noblest of professions. In the ranks of that kind of politics, every American should be enrolled.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Republican Lincoln Day Dinners (28 Jan 1954)
(Source)

Often paraphrased: "Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free men."

The speech was filmed for the Republican National Committee and distributed to state and local committees to be shown at the Lincoln Day dinners.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Letter to Thomas Carlyle (1835)

Dave — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 13:46:24 +0000

A man plunges into politics to make his fortune, and only cares that the world should last his days.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Letter to Thomas Carlyle (1835)

Stevenson, Adlai -- News conference (Fall 1955)

Dave — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 16:01:19 +0000

I am not sure what it means when one says that he is a conservative in fiscal affairs and a liberal in human affairs. I assume what it means is that you will strongly recommend the building of a great many schools to accommodate the needs of our children, but not provide the money.

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
News conference (Fall 1955)

Churchill, Winston -- Speech, New York (25 Jan 1932)

Dave — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 14:33:24 +0000

The world today is ruled by harassed politicians absorbed in getting into office or turning out the other man so that not much room is left for determining great issues on their merits.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, New York (25 Jan 1932)

Ames, Fisher -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 16:09:54 +0000

Monarchy is like a sleek craft, it sails along well until some bumbling captain runs it into the rocks. Democracy, on the other hand, is like a raft. It never goes down but, dammit, your feet are always wet.

Fisher Ames (1758-1808) American politician, orator
(Attributed)

This is the earliest reference I can find to this metaphor. Variants:

"A monarchy is a merchantman which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock and go to the bottom; a republic is a raft which will never sink, but then your feet are always in the water." This variant is often attributed to a speech in the House of Representatives in 1795, but is not found in records of Ames' speeches.
"A monarchy is like a man-of-war -- bad shots between wind and water hurt it exceedingly; there is danger of capsizing. But democracy is a raft. You cannot easily overturn it. It is a wet place, but it is a pretty safe one." -- Joseph Cook (1860-1947) Anglo-Australian politician
"Dictatorship is like a big proud ship -- steaming away across the ocean with a great hulk and powerful engines driving it. It’s going fast and strong and looks like nothing could stop it. What happens? Your fine ship strikes something -- under the surface. Maybe it’s a mine or a reef, maybe it’s a torpedo or an iceberg. And your wonderful ship sinks. Now take democracy. It’s like riding on a raft, a rickety raft that was put together in a hurry. We get tossed about on the waves, it’s bad going and our feet are always wet. But that raft doesn’t sink … It’s the raft that will get to the shore at last." --- Roaldus Richmond (fl. 1940) American writer. In, ed., "A Yankee Businessman in New Hampshire," American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1940.
"Democracy is like a raft: It won't sink, but you will always have your feet wet." -- Russell B. Long (1918-2003) American politician
"But you have to understand, American democracy is not like the system you have. We're not an ocean liner that sails across the ocean from point A to point B at 30 knots. That's not American democracy. American democracy is kind of like a life raft that bobs around the ocean all the time. Your feet are always wet. Winds are always blowing. You're cold. You're wet. You're uncomfortable -- but you never sink." -- Colin Powell (b. 1937) American politician, diplomat, soldier

Quay, Matthew -- (Attributed, 1886)

Dave — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 15:59:27 +0000

If you have a weak candidate and a weak platform, wrap yourself up in the American flag and talk about the Constitution.

Matthew Stanley Quay (1833-1904) American political boss, politician, US Senator
(Attributed, 1886)

Huxley, Aldous -- Brave New World Revisited (1958)

Dave — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 13:37:44 +0000

The methods now being used to merchandise the political candidate as though he were a deodorant positively guarantee the electorate against ever hearing the truth about anything.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Brave New World Revisited (1958)

Gregory, Dick -- Dick Gregory’s Political Primer (1972)

Dave — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 15:05:21 +0000

There are two major kinds of promises in politics: the promises made by candidates to the voters and the promises made by the candidates to persons and groups able to deliver the vote. Promises falling into the latter category are loosely called “patronage,” and promises falling into the former category are most frequently called “lies.”

Richard Claxton "Dick" Gregory (1932-2017) American activist, social critic, writer, comedian
Dick Gregory’s Political Primer (1972)

Ace, Goodman -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 14:02:31 +0000

For a candidate to spend millions of dollars during the primaries to win a job that pays only $100,000 a year, doesn’t bode well for the citizens’ hopes of electing a man to this high office whose knowledge of economics will balance our national budget.

Goodman Ace (1899-1982) American humorist [b. Goodman Aiskowitz]
(Attributed)

Ameringer, Oscar -- The American Guardian

Dave — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 17:26:41 +0000

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.

Oscar Ameringer (1870-1943) German-American political activist, Socialist organizer, author, politican
The American Guardian

Maher, Bill -- When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden (2002)

Dave — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 15:40:32 +0000

But freedom isn’t free. It shouldn’t be a bragging point that, “Oh, I don’t get involved in politics,” as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn’t insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable.

William "Bill" Maher (b. 1956) American comedian, political commentator, critic, television host.
When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden (2002)

Dunne, Finley Peter -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 17:01:16 +0000

There are no friends at cards or world politics

Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) American humorist and journalist
(Attributed)

Mitchell, Ed -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 14:51:33 +0000

You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, “Look at that, you son of a bitch.”

Edgar "Ed" Mitchell (1930-2016) American aviator, engineer, astronaut
(Attributed)

The earliest source I can find of the quote is in People (8 Apr 1974), where it appears as an epigraph for a story on Mitchell three years after his flight to the Moon.

Peguy, Charles -- “The Modern World: Politics and Mysticism,” Basic Verities [tr. Green & Green (1943)]

Dave — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 16:35:33 +0000

Everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics.

Charles Péguy (1873-1914) French poet, essayist, editor
“The Modern World: Politics and Mysticism,” Basic Verities [tr. Green & Green (1943)]

Goldwater, Barry -- “Barry Goldwater’s Left Turn,” The Washington Post (28 Jul 1994)

Dave — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 16:17:57 +0000

When you say “radical right” today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican Party away from the Republican Party, and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye.

Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) American politician
“Barry Goldwater’s Left Turn,” The Washington Post (28 Jul 1994)
(Source)

Goldwater, Barry -- Speech, US Senate (16 Sep 1981)

Dave — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 15:01:42 +0000

And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of “conservatism.”

Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) American politician
Speech, US Senate (16 Sep 1981)

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1952-09-11), “On Political Morality,” Town Hall Luncheon, Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles

Dave — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 16:43:41 +0000

Your public servants serve you right.

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-09-11), “On Political Morality,” Town Hall Luncheon, Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles
(Source)

See Kennedy (1956), O'Rourke (1991).

Goldwater, Barry -- Speech, US Senate (16 Sep 1981)

Dave — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 15:45:52 +0000

On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.

Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) American politician
Speech, US Senate (16 Sep 1981)

Gross, Bertram -- Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America, ch. 9 (1980)

Dave — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 14:59:06 +0000

The more lies are told, the more important it becomes for the liars to justify themselves by deep moral commitments to high-sounding objectives that mask the pursuit of money and power.

Bertram M. Gross (1912-1997) American social scientist, academic, bureaucrat
Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America, ch. 9 (1980)

McKinley, William -- Speech, Woodstock, Connecticut (4 July 1891)

Dave — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 15:37:30 +0000

Every honest and God-fearing man is a mighty factor in the future of the Republic. Educated men, business men, professional men, should be the last to shirk the responsibilities attaching to citizenship in a free government. They should be practical and helpful — mingling with the people — not selfish and exclusive. It is not necessary that every man should enter into politics, or adopt it as a profession, or seek political preferment, but it is the duty of every man to give personal attention to his political duties. They are as sacred and binding as any we have to perform.

William McKinley (1843-1901) US President (1897-1901)
Speech, Woodstock, Connecticut (4 July 1891)
(Source)

Adams, Franklin P. -- Nods and Becks (1944)

Dave — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 13:55:13 +0000

The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time.

Franklin Pierce Adams (1881-1960) American journalist and humorist ["F. P. A."]
Nods and Becks (1944)

See Lincoln.

Goethe, Johann von -- Sprüche in Reimen (1819)

Dave — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 14:47:42 +0000

Divide and rule, the politician cries;
Unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

[Entzwei’ und gebiete! Tüchtig Wort;
Verein’ und leite! Beßrer Hort!]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Sprüche in Reimen (1819)
(Source)

Alt. trans.:

"Divide and command, a wise maxim; / Unite and guide, a better."
"Divide and rule, a capital motto! / Unite and lead, a better one!"

Cuomo, Mario -- Keynote Address, Democratic National Convention (16 Jul 1984)

Dave — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 15:21:37 +0000

We believe in only the government we need, but we insist on all the government we need. We believe in a government that is characterized by fairness and reasonableness, a reasonableness that goes beyond labels, that doesn’t distort or promise to do things that we know we can’t do. We believe in a government strong enough to use words like “love” and “compassion” and smart enough to convert our noblest aspirations into practical realities. We believe in encouraging the talented, but we believe that while survival of the fittest may be a good working description of the process of evolution, a government of humans should elevate itself to a higher order.

Mario Cuomo (1932-2015) American politician
Keynote Address, Democratic National Convention (16 Jul 1984)
(Source)

Lippmann, Walter -- A Preface to Politics, ch. 3 (1914)

Dave — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 16:57:40 +0000

When philosophers try to be politicians, they generally cease to be philosophers.

Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
A Preface to Politics, ch. 3 (1914)

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- Speech, Republican National Committee Luncheon (17 Feb 1955)

Dave — Thu, 28 May 2015 13:11:46 +0000

Now I realize that on any particular decision a very great amount of heat can be generated. But I do say this: life is not made up of just one decision here, or another one there. It is the total of the decisions that you make in your daily lives with respect to politics, to your family, to your environment, to the people about you. Government has to do that same thing. It is only in the mass that finally philosophy really emerges.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Republican National Committee Luncheon (17 Feb 1955)

Lerner, Max -- Column, New York Star (9 Jan 1949)

Dave — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 12:47:40 +0000

A President is best judged by the enemies he makes when he has really hit his stride.

Maxwell "Max" Lerner (1902-1992) American journalist, columnist, educator
Column, New York Star (9 Jan 1949)

Reprinted in "The Education of Harry Truman," pt. 4, The Unfinished Country (1959).

Peres, Shimon -- In International Herald Tribune (25-26 Jan 2003)

Dave — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 14:09:21 +0000

Polls are like perfume — nice to smell, dangerous to swallow.

Shimon Peres (1923-2016) Polish-Israeli politician, statesman
In International Herald Tribune (25-26 Jan 2003)

Debs, Eugene V. -- “The Issue,” Speech, Girard, Kansas (23 May 1908)

Dave — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 13:42:36 +0000

It is a basic economic proposition that as long as a relatively few men own the railroads, the telegraph, the telephone, own the oil fields and the gas fields and the steel mills and the sugar refineries and the leather tanneries — own, in short, the sources and means of life — they will corrupt our politics, they will enslave the working class, they will impoverish and debase society, they will do all things that are needful to perpetuate their power as the economic masters and the political rulers of the people.

Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) American union leader, activist, socialist, politician
“The Issue,” Speech, Girard, Kansas (23 May 1908)
(Source)

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano -- Quoted in Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen, “How the President Works,” Harper’s Monthly Magazine, Vol. 173 (1936-06)

Dave — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 13:44:53 +0000

To accomplish almost anything worthwhile, it is necessary to compromise between the ideal and the practical.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Quoted in Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen, “How the President Works,” Harper’s Monthly Magazine, Vol. 173 (1936-06)
(Source)

Keillor, Garrison -- “We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore,” In These Times (26 Aug 2004)

Dave — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 12:54:21 +0000

The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk.

Garrison Keillor (b. 1942) American entertainer, author
“We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore,” In These Times (26 Aug 2004)
(Source)

Burgh, James -- Political Disquisitions, Book 1 “Of Government, briefly” (1774)

Dave — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 12:51:58 +0000

All lawful authority, legislative, and executive, originates from the people. Power in the people is like light in the sun: native, original, inherent, and unlimited by anything human. In governors it may be compared to the reflected light of the moon, for it is only borrowed, delegated, and limited by the intention of the people; whose it is, and to whom governors are to consider themselves as responsible, while the people are answerable only to God; — themselves being the losers, if they pursue a false scheme of politics.

James Burgh (1714-1775) British politician and writer
Political Disquisitions, Book 1 “Of Government, briefly” (1774)
(Source)

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Speech (1876-07-04), “Centennial Oration [The Declaration of Independence],” Peoria, Illinois

Dave — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:26:32 +0000

They had the courage not only, but they had the almost infinite wisdom, to declare that all men are created equal. Such things had occasionally been said by some political enthusiast in the olden time, but, for the first time in the history of the world, the representatives of a nation, the representatives of a real, living, breathing, hoping people, declared that all men are created equal. With one blow, with one stroke of the pen, they struck down all the cruel, heartless barriers that aristocracy, that priestcraft, that kingcraft had raised between man and man. They struck down with one immortal blow that infamous spirit of caste that makes a god almost a beast, and a beast almost a god. With one word, with one blow, they wiped away and utterly destroyed, all that had been done by centuries of war — centuries of hypocrisy — centuries of injustice.
One hundred years ago our fathers retired the gods from politics.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Speech (1876-07-04), “Centennial Oration [The Declaration of Independence],” Peoria, Illinois
(Source)

In quotation collections, this last phrase is often concatenated with the first sentence of the speech:

One hundred years ago, our fathers retired the gods from politics. The Declaration of Independence is the grandest, the bravest, and the profoundest political document that was ever signed by the representatives of a people. It is the embodiment of physical and moral courage and of political wisdom.

Huxley, Aldous -- The Island, “Notes on What’s What” (1962)

Dave — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:15:32 +0000

‘Patriotism is not enough.’ But neither is anything else. Science is not enough, religion is not enough, art is not enough, politics and economics are not enough, nor is love, nor is duty, nor is action however disinterested, nor, however sublime, is contemplation. Nothing short of everything will really do.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
The Island, “Notes on What’s What” (1962)

Warren, Elizabeth -- Speech, Emily’s List PAC, New York (22 Sep 2014)

Dave — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 16:52:07 +0000

If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu.

Elizabeth Warren (b. 1949) American academic and politician [née Herring]
Speech, Emily’s List PAC, New York (22 Sep 2014)
(Source)

Camus, Albert -- Review of Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea, in Alger Républicain (20 Oct 1938)

Dave — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 15:33:57 +0000

A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images. And in a good novel, the whole of the philosophy has passed into the images. But if once the philosophy overflows the characters and action, and therefore looks like a label stuck on the work, the plot loses its authenticity and the novel its life. Nevertheless, a work that is to last cannot dispense with profound ideas. And this secret fusion between experiences and ideas, between life and reflection on the meaning of life, is what makes the great novelist.

Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
Review of Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea, in Alger Républicain (20 Oct 1938)

Clarke, James F. -- “Wanted, a Statesman!”, Old and New Magazine (Dec 1870)

Dave — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 11:42:50 +0000

The statesman values principles more than measures, and measures more than party. I am afraid the politician reverses this rule, valuing his party most, measures next, and principles least.

James Freeman Clarke (1810-1888) American theologian and author
“Wanted, a Statesman!”, Old and New Magazine (Dec 1870)
(Source)

Clarke, James F. -- “Wanted, a Statesman!”, Old and New Magazine (Dec 1870)

Dave — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 11:42:47 +0000

The difficulty about a politician, no matter how honest and well-intentioned he may be, is always this: that the matter of absolute importance in his mind, to which everything else must yield, is to carry the next election for his party.

James Freeman Clarke (1810-1888) American theologian and author
“Wanted, a Statesman!”, Old and New Magazine (Dec 1870)
(Source)

Lloyd George, David -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 13:49:54 +0000

The man who tries to make the flag an object of a single party is a greater traitor to that flag than any man who fires at it.

David Lloyd George (1863-1945) Welsh politician, statesman, UK Prime Minister (1916-22)
(Attributed)

Coates, Ta-Nehisi -- “Hubris,” Atlantic (7 Apr 2011)

Dave — Tue, 26 Aug 2014 12:26:45 +0000

It’d be nice if we’d now stop hearing political appointees and MBA candidates crowing about their private sector successes, their nose for accountability and the perils of broken government. Whatever. All I hear in that is the sneering of reformers who actually don’t much like democracy. I don’t want politicians who are “above politics,” anymore then I want a plumber who’s “above toilets.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates (b. 1975) American writer, journalist, educator
“Hubris,” Atlantic (7 Apr 2011)
(Source)

Kushner, Tony -- Interview with Ben Greenman, “Tony Kushner, Radical Pragmatist,” Mother Jones (Nov/Dec 2003)

Dave — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 12:53:33 +0000

The system isn’t about ideals. The country doesn’t elect great leaders. It elects fucked-up people who for reasons of ego want to run the world. Then the citizenry makes them become great.

Tony Kushner (b. 1956) American playwright and screenwriter
Interview with Ben Greenman, “Tony Kushner, Radical Pragmatist,” Mother Jones (Nov/Dec 2003)
(Source)

Kushner, Tony -- Interview with Ben Greenman, “Tony Kushner, Radical Pragmatist,” Mother Jones (Nov/Dec 2003)

Dave — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 13:39:00 +0000

Listen, here’s the thing about politics: It’s not an expression of your moral purity and your ethics and your probity and your fond dreams of some utopian future. Progressive people constantly fail to get this.

Tony Kushner (b. 1956) American playwright and screenwriter
Interview with Ben Greenman, “Tony Kushner, Radical Pragmatist,” Mother Jones (Nov/Dec 2003)
(Source)

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, Reciprocity Club, Washington (11 Apr 1958)

Dave — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 12:48:17 +0000

I’m proud that I’m a politician. A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead 10 or 15 years.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Reciprocity Club, Washington (11 Apr 1958)

See Thomas Reed.

Twain, Mark -- Following the Equator, ch. 65, Epigraph (1897)

Dave — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 12:54:43 +0000

In statesmanship get the formalities right, never mind about the moralities.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 65, Epigraph (1897)

Lincoln, Abraham -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 12:20:49 +0000

Honest statesmanship is the wise employment of individual meannesses for the public good.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
(Source)

Attributed in John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, vol. 10, ch. 18 "Lincoln's Fame" (1886).

Schlesinger, Arthur -- “The Necessary Amorality of Foreign Affairs,” Harper’s (Aug 1971)

Dave — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 22:32:16 +0000

Saints can be pure but statesmen must be responsible. As trustees for others, they must defend interests and compromise principles. In politics, practical and prudential judgment must have priority over moral verdicts.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007) American historian, author, social critic
“The Necessary Amorality of Foreign Affairs,” Harper’s (Aug 1971)

Kennedy, John F. -- Speech (1960-07-15), “The New Frontier, Nomination Acceptance Speech, Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles

Dave — Mon, 19 May 2014 13:57:28 +0000

But I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high — to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Speech (1960-07-15), “The New Frontier, Nomination Acceptance Speech, Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles

Clarke, Susanna -- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Dave — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 12:17:48 +0000

The Foreign Secretary was a quite peerless orator. No matter how low the Government stood in the estimation of everyone, when the Foreign Secretary stood up and spoke — ah! how different everything seemed then! How quickly was every bad thing discovered to be the fault of the previous administration (an evil set of men who wedded general stupidity to wickedness of purpose).

Susanna Clarke (b. 1949) British author
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004)

Lowell, James Russell -- New England Two Centuries Ago (1865)

Dave — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 13:29:06 +0000

He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson of statecraft.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
New England Two Centuries Ago (1865)

Kennedy, John F. -- Profiles in Courage (1956; 1964 ed.)

Dave — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 12:42:05 +0000

For in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, “holds office”; every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Profiles in Courage (1956; 1964 ed.)

Kennedy, John F. -- Profiles in Courage (1956; 1964 ed.)

Dave — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 13:57:07 +0000

The true democracy, living and growing and inspiring, puts its faith in the people — faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but will also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgment — faith that the people will not condemn those whose devotion to principle leads them to unpopular courses, but will reward courage, respect honor, and ultimately recognize right.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Profiles in Courage (1956; 1964 ed.)

Kennedy, John F. -- Profiles in Courage, Introduction (1956)

Dave — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 13:52:37 +0000

Today the challenge of political courage looms larger than ever before. … Our political life is becoming so expensive, so mechanized and so dominated by professional politicians and public relations men that the idealist who dreams of independent statesmanship is rudely awakened by the necessities of election and accomplishment.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Profiles in Courage, Introduction (1956)

Powell, Colin -- News conference, Alexandria, VA (8 Nov 1995)

Dave — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 13:46:08 +0000

In one generation we have moved from denying a black man service at a lunch counter to elevating one to the highest military office in the nation, and to being a serious contender for the presidency. This is a magnificent country and I am proud to be one of its sons.

Colin Powell (1937-2021) American military leader, politician, diplomat
News conference, Alexandria, VA (8 Nov 1995)

While announcing his decision not to seek the presidential nomination.

Ford, Gerald R. -- Speech, Profiles in Courage Award Acceptance, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library (2001)

Dave — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 15:38:15 +0000

If there is distrust out there — and there is — perhaps it is because there is so much partisan jockeying for advantage at the expense of public policy. At times it feels as if American politics consists largely of candidates without ideas, hiring consultants without convictions, to stage campaigns without content. Increasingly the result is elections without voters.

Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006) American politician, US President (1974-77) [b. Leslie Lynch King, Jr.]
Speech, Profiles in Courage Award Acceptance, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library (2001)
(Source)

Holland, Josiah G. -- “Wanted” (1872)

Dave — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 20:52:14 +0000

God give us men. The time demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and willing hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking;
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty and in private thinking ….

J. G. Holland (1819-1881) American novelist, poet, editor [Josiah Gilbert Holland; pseud. Timothy Titcomb]
“Wanted” (1872)
(Source)

Adapted by Martin Luther King in 1956: "God give us leaders. A time like this demands great leaders. Leaders whom the fog of life cannot chill, men whom the lust of office cannot buy. Leaders who have honor, leaders who will not lie. Leaders who will stand before a pagan god and damn his treacherous flattery."

Niebuhr, Reinhold -- The Irony of American History (1962)

Dave — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 13:52:48 +0000

We find it almost as difficult as the communists to believe that anyone could think ill of us, since we are as persuaded as the communists that our society is so essentially virtuous that only malice could prompt criticism of any of our actions.

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) American theologian and clergyman
The Irony of American History (1962)

Twain, Mark -- Christian Science, ch. 5 (1907)

Dave — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 17:09:59 +0000

There’s no end to the list; there are millions of them! And all insane; each in his own way; insane as to his pet fad or opinion, but otherwise sane and rational. This should move us to be charitable towards one another’s lunacies. I recognize that in his special belief the Christian Scientist is insane, because he does not believe as I do; but I hail him as my mate and fellow, because I am as insane as he insane from his point of view, and his point of view is as authoritative as mine and worth as much. That is to say, worth a brass farthing. Upon a great religious or political question, the opinion of the dullest head in the world is worth the same as the opinion of the brightest head in the world — a brass farthing. How do we arrive at this? It is simple. The affirmative opinion of a stupid man is neutralized by the negative opinion of his stupid neighbor — no decision is reached; the affirmative opinion of the intellectual giant Gladstone is neutralized by the negative opinion of the intellectual giant Newman — no decision is reached. Opinions that prove nothing are, of course, without value any but a dead person knows that much. This obliges us to admit the truth of the unpalatable proposition just mentioned above — that, in disputed matters political and religious, one man’s opinion is worth no more than his peer’s, and hence it followers that no man’s opinion possesses any real value. It is a humbling thought, but there is no way to get around it: all opinions upon these great subjects are brass-farthing opinions.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Christian Science, ch. 5 (1907)
(Source)