George Washington Plunkitt Quotes (67 quotes)

George Washington Plunkitt: 67 quotes1 like

Famous George Washington Plunkitt Quotes

“As a matter of policy, if nothing else, why should the Tammany leaders go into such dirty business, when there is so much honest graft lyin’ around when they are in power? p. 6”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 1, Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft

“There’s always a certain number of suckers and a certain number of men lookin’ for a chance to take them in, and the suckers are sure to be took one way or another. It’s the everlastin’ law of demand and supply. p. 60”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 14 Tammany the Only Lastin’ Democracy

“How nice it is for the people to feel that they can get up in the mornin’ without bein’ afraid of seein’ in the papers that the Commissioner of Water Supply has sandbagged the Dock Commissioner, and that the Mayor and heads of the departments have been taken to the police court as witnesses! p. 82”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 20, Bosses Preserve the Nation

“If I have a good thing to hand out in private life, I give it to a friend. Why shouldn’t I do the same in public life? p.6”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 1, Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft

“Most of the leaders are plain American citizens, of the people and near to the people, and they have all the education they need to whip the dudes who part their name in the middle and to run the City Government. p. 45”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 11, Tammany Leaders Not Bookworms

“Say, ain’t some of the papers awful gullible about politics? p. 59”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 14 Tammany the Only Lastin’ Democracy

George Washington Plunkitt Quotes about men

“I think every man would be better off if he didn’t take any intoxicatin’ drink at all, but as men will drink, they ought to have good stuff without impoverishin’ themselves by goin’ to fancy places and without riskin’ death by goin’ to poor places. p. 86”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 21, Concerning Excise

“I honestly believe that drink is the greatest curse of the day, except, of course, civil service, and that it has driven more young men to ruin than anything except civil service examinations. p. 78”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 19, The Successful Politician Does Not Drink

“I've been studyin’ the political game for forty-five years, and I don’t know it all yet. I’m learnin’ somethin’ all the time. How, then, can you expect what they call “business men” to turn into politics all at once and make a success of it? p. 19”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 4, Reformers Only Mornin’ Glories

“Men ain’t in politics for nothin’. They want to get somethin’ out of it. p. 37”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 9, Reciprocity in Patronage

“What did the people mean when they voted for Tammany? What is representative government, anyhow? Is it all a fake that this is a government of the people, by the people and for the people? If it isn't a fake, then why isn't the people's voice obeyed and Tammany men put in all the offices? p. 12”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 3, The Curse of Civil Service Reform

“The boys and men don’t get excited any more when they see a United States flag or hear “The Star-Spangled Banner.” They don’t care no more for firecrackers on the Fourth of July. And why should they? What is there in it for them?”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 3, The Curse of Civil Service Reform

George Washington Plunkitt: Trending quotes

“I know that the civil service humbug is stuck into the constitution, too, but, as Tim Campbell said: “What’s the constitution among friends?””

George Washington Plunkitt

Source: Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 3, The Curse of Civil Service Reform, p. 13

“Another kind of honest graft. Tammany has raised a good many salaries. There was an awful howl by the reformers, but don’t you know that Tammany gains ten votes for every one it lost by salary raisin’? p. 6”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 1, Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft

“You can’t be patriotic on a salary that just keeps the wolf from the door. p. 56”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 13, On Municipal Ownership

George Washington Plunkitt Quotes

“Of course, the day may come when we’ll reject the money of the rich as tainted, but it hadn’t come when I left Tammany Hall at 11:25 A. M. today. p. 73”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 18, On the Use of Money in Politics

“The men who rule have practiced keepin’ their tongues still, not exercisin’ them. p. 8”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 2, How to Become a Statesman

“There’s an honest graft, and I’m an example of how it works. I might sum up the whole thing by sayin’: “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.””

George Washington Plunkitt

Source: Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 1, Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft, p. 3

“The railroad is a great public institution, and I was never an enemy of public institutions. p. 63”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 15. Concerning Gas in Politics

“Every good man looks after his friends, and any man who doesn’t isn’t likely to be popular. p. 5”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 1, Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft

“The hayseeds think we are like the Indians to the National Government—that is, sort of wards of the State, who don’t know how to look after ourselves and have to be taken care of by the Republicans of St. Lawrence, Ontario, and other backwoods counties. p. 21”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 5, New York City Is Pie for the Hayseeds

“The name-parted-in-the-middle aristocrats act in just the same way. They don’t want to be annoyed with firecrackers and the Declaration of Independence, and when they see the Fourth comin’ they hustle off to the woods like my dog. p. 71”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 17, Tammany’s Patriotism

“The politician who steals is worse than a thief. He is a fool. With the grand opportunities all around for the man with a political pull, there’s no excuse for stealin’ a cent. p. 32”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 7, On The Shame of the Cities

“He eats corned beef and kosher meat with equal nonchalance, and it’s all the same to him whether he takes off his hat in the church or pulls it down over his ears in the synagogue. p. 48”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 11, Tammany Leaders Not Bookworms

“The Democratic party of the nation ain’t dead, though it’s been givin’ a lifelike imitation of a corpse for several years. p. 88”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 22, A Parting Word on the Future of the Democratic Party in America

“This civil service law is the biggest fraud of the age. It is the curse of the nation. p. 11”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 3, The Curse of Civil Service Reform

“The Raines liquor law is infamous. It takes away nearly all the profits of the saloonkeepers, and then turns in a large part of the money to the State treasury to relieve the hayseeds from taxes. p. 84”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 21, Concerning Excise

“They learned how to put up a pretty good bluff—and bluff counts a lot in politics. p. 18”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 4, Reformers Only Mornin’ Glories

“The man is picked out and somehow he gets to understand what’s expected of him in the way of a contribution, and he ponies up—all from gratitude to the organization that honored him, see? p. 74”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 18, On the Use of Money in Politics

“Isn’t it enough to make a man sour on his country when he wants to serve it and won’t be allowed unless he answers a lot of fool questions about the number of cubic inches of water in the Atlantic and the quality of sand in the Sahara desert? p. 11”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 3, The Curse of Civil Service Reform

“Say, I don’t wish I was a poet, for if I was, I guess I’d be livin’ in a garret on no dollars a week instead of runnin’ a great contractin’ and transportation business which is doin’ pretty well, thank you; but, honest, now, the notion takes me sometimes to yell poetry of the red-hot-hail-glorious-land kind when I think of New York City as a state by itself. p. 67”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 16, Plunkitt’s Fondest Dream

“Once let a man grow up amidst Brooklyn’s cobblestones, with the odor of Newton Creek and Gowanus Canal ever in his nostrils, and there’s no place in the world for him except Brooklyn. p. 41”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 10, Brooklynites Natural-Born Hayseeds

“The Wall Street banker thinks it shameful to raise a department clerk’s salary from $1500 to $1800 a year, but every man who draws a salary himself says: “That’s all right. I wish it was me.” And he feels very much like votin’ the Tammany ticket on election day, just out of sympathy.”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 1, Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft

“Brought up in Tammany Hall, he has learned how to reach the hearts of the great mass of voters. He does not bother about reaching their heads. It is his belief that arguments and campaign literature have never gained votes. p. 91”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 23, Strenuous Life of the Tammany District Leader

“Just remember that there’s thirty-five Assembly districts in New York County, and thirty-six district leaders reachin’ out for the Tammany dough-bag for somethin’ to keep up the patriotism of ten thousand workers, and you wouldn’t wonder that the cry for more, more, is goin’ up from every district organization now and forevermore. Amen. p. 76”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 18, On the Use of Money in Politics

“I rope them all in by givin’ them opportunities to show themselves off. I don’t trouble them with political arguments. I just study human nature and act accordin’. p. 26”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 6, To Hold Your District: Study Human Nature and Act Accordin’

“I ain’t up on sillygisms, but I can give you some arguments that nobody can answer. p. 13”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 3, The Curse of Civil Service Reform

“Consolidation didn’t make him a New Yorker, and nothin’ on earth can. A man born in Germany can settle down and become a good New Yorker. So can an Irishman; in fact, the first word an Irish boy learns in the old country is “New York,” and when he grows up and comes here, he is at home right away. Even a Jap or a Chinaman can become a New Yorker, but a Brooklynite never can. p. 41”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 10, Brooklynites Natural-Born Hayseeds

“I know more than one young man in past years who worked for the ticket and was just overflowin’ with patriotism, but when he was knocked out by the civil service humbug he got to hate his country and became an Anarchist. p. 11”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 3, The Curse of Civil Service Reform

“The time is comin’ and though I’m no youngster, I may see it, when New York City will break away from the State and become a state itself. p. 65”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 16, Plunkitt’s Fondest Dream

“Before then when a party won, its workers got everything in sight. That was somethin’ to make a man patriotic. p. 14”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 3, The Curse of Civil Service Reform

“I want to add that no matter how well you learn to play the political game, you won’t make a lastin’ success of it if you're a drinkin’ man. p. 77”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 19, The Successful Politician Does Not Drink

“Big Tim made money out of liquor—sellin’ it to other people. That’s the only way to get good out of liquor. p. 79”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 19, The Successful Politician Does Not Drink

“Who is better fitted to run the railroads and the gas plants and the ferries than the men who make a business of lookin’ after the interests of the city? p. 54”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 13, On Municipal Ownership

“The politicians who make a lastin’ success in politics are the men who are always loyal to their friends, even up to the gate of State prison, if necessary; men who keep their promises and never lie. p. 35”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 8, Ingratitude in Politics

“Jimmy O’Brien brought the manufacture of “Democracies” down to an exact science, and reduced the cost of production so as to bring it within the reach of all. Any man with $50 can now have a “Democracy” of his own. p. 58”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 14 Tammany the Only Lastin’ Democracy

“Some young men think they can learn how to be successful in politics from books, and they cram their heads with all sorts of college rot. They couldn’t make a bigger mistake. p. 7”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 2, How to Become a Statesman

“I knew what was comin’ when a young Irishman drops whisky and takes to beer and long pipes in a German saloon. That young man is today one of the wildest Anarchists in town. p. 12”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 3, The Curse of Civil Service Reform

“You can’t study human nature in books. Books is a hindrance more than anything else. p. 25”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 6, To Hold Your District: Study Human Nature and Act Accordin’

“Then will return the good old times, when our district leaders could have nice comfortable primary elections at some place selected by themselves and let in only men that they approved of as good Democrats. p. 83”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 20, Bosses Preserve the Nation

“Oh, yes, that is a good way to do up the so-called bosses, but have you ever thought what would become of the country if the bosses were put out of business, and their places were taken by a lot of cart-tail orators and college graduates? It would mean chaos. p. 81”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 20, Bosses Preserve the Nation

“The most successful saloonkeepers don’t drink themselves and they understand that my temperance is a business proposition, just like their own. p. 77”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 19, The Successful Politician Does Not Drink

“Putin’ on style don’t pay in politics. p. 50”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 12, Dangers of the Dress Suit in Politics

“The Irish, above all people in the world, hates a traitor. p. 35”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 8, Ingratitude in Politics

“I know it’s an awful temptation, the hankerin’ to show off your learnin’. I’ve felt it myself, but I always resist it. I know the awful consequences. p. 53”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 12, Dangers of the Dress Suit in Politics

“Politics is as much a regular business as the grocery or the dry-goods or the drug business. You've got to be trained up to it or you're sure to fail. p. 19”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 4, Reformers Only Mornin’ Glories

“That’s the a, b, c of politics. It ain’t easy work to get up to q and z. You have to give nearly all your time and attention to it. p. 20”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 4, Reformers Only Mornin’ Glories

“It’s because a Brooklynite is a natural-born hayseed, and can never become a real New Yorker. p. 41”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 10, Brooklynites Natural-Born Hayseeds

“There’s the biggest kind of a difference between political looters and politicians who make a fortune out of politics by keepin’ their eyes wide open. The looter goes in for himself alone without considerin’ his organization or his city. The politician looks after his own interests, the organization’s interests, and the city’s interests all at the same time. See the distinction? p. 29”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 7, On The Shame of the Cities

“Ought these good people be subjected to the immoral influence of money taken from the saloon tainted money? Out of respect for the tender consciences of these pious people, the Raines law ought to exempt them from all contamination from the plunder that comes from the saloon traffic. Say, mark that sarcastic. Some people who ain’t used to fine sarcasm might think I meant it. p. 85”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 21, Concerning Excise

“What’s the use of havin’ ill-smellin’ gashouses if there’s no votes in them? p. 62”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 15. Concerning Gas in Politics

“The trouble is that the party’s been chasin’ after theories and stayin’ up nights readin’ books instead of studyin’ human nature and actin’ accordin’, as I've advised in tellin’ how to hold your district. p. 88”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 22, A Parting Word on the Future of the Democratic Party in America

“Before midnight we were all in bed, and next mornin’ we were up bright and early attendin’ to business, while other men were nursin’ swelled heads. Is there anything the matter with temperance as a pure business proposition? p. 80”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 19, The Successful Politician Does Not Drink

“If you have been to college, so much the worse for you. You'll have to unlearn all you learned before you can get right down to human nature, and unlearnin’ takes a lot of time. Some men can never forget what they learned at college. p. 25”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 6, To Hold Your District: Study Human Nature and Act Accordin’

“Richard Croker used to say that tellin’ the truth and stickin’ to his friends was the political leader’s stock in trade. p. 35”

George Washington Plunkitt

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, Chapter 8, Ingratitude in Politics

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