WIST Quotations

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1994-02-10)

Dave — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 01:14:29 +0000

CALVIN: Here’s the latest poll on your performance as Dad. Your approval rating is pretty low, I’m afraid.

CALVIN’S DAD: That’s because there’s not necessarily any connection between what’s good and what’s popular. I do what’s right, not what gets approval.

CALVIN: You’ll never keep the job with that attitude.

CALVIN’S DAD: If someone else offers to do it, let me know.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1994-02-10)

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1985-12-02)

Dave — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 06:50:40 +0000

CALVIN: Bad news, Dad. Your polls are way down.

CALVIN’S DAD: My polls?

CALVIN: You rate especially low among tigers and six-year-old white males.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1985-12-02)

Nixon, Richard Milhous -- Six Crises, ch. 3 (1962)

Dave — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 15:21:14 +0000

Public opinion polls are useful if a politician uses them only to learn approximately what the people are thinking, so that he can talk to them more intelligently. The politician who sways with the polls is not worth his pay. And I believe the people eventually catch up with the man who merely tells them what he thinks they want to hear.

Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994) American politician, writer, US President (1967–74)
Six Crises, ch. 3 (1962)

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)

Kennedy, Robert F. -- Speech, University of Pennsylvania (6 May 1964)

Dave — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 12:45:26 +0000

About one-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.

Robert Francis Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician
Speech, University of Pennsylvania (6 May 1964)