Politics Quotes

"The price of stability is eternal vigilance."

"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government."

"In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority."

"First and foremost, it is important to note that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is a political animal."

"The effects of faction are nowhere perhaps more strongly felt than in the United States."

"The true political art is the art of promoting the welfare of the community."

"All government is founded on compromise and barter."

"A king may be a tool, a puppet, or a pageant; but a nation must be a real power."

"The natural antagonism between those who control power and those who do not control it is ever present."

"There is no accounting for the enmities which political life engenders."

"The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians."

"A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords."

"That fatal drollery called a representative government."

"The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those not behind the scenes."

"Revolutions are not made by political philosophy; they are made by passion."

"The function of government is to calm, not to excite the public mind."

"A nation does not have friends or enemies, it has interests."

"A good foreign policy must be built upon understanding national interests, not sentiments."

"The art of politics is knowing when to advance and when to retreat."

"The duty of a government is to protect its citizens, not to enlighten them."

"A nation's foreign policy must be guided by reason, not emotion."

"Politics is the art of the possible."

"A good government serves its people, not itself."

"Politics is the art of the possible, not the ideal."

"Politics requires both principle and pragmatism in equal measure."

"The worth of any public measure is to be judged by the distinctness and precision with which it is urged and expressed."

"Society has had ample opportunity to know whether such restrictions as these tend to its advantage, and experience has shown that they do not."

"The general rule is that anything which tends to prevent people from being happy is bad policy."

"Politics is a practice, not a profession."

"We have been making a great mistake in regard to Irish representation."