George Washington Plunkitt: Trending quotes (page 2)

“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

“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

Men

“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

Dead

“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

Age , Law , Fraud

“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 , Game , Business , Time

“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

Money , Law , Parting

“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

Learning

“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

Way , Understanding , Gratitude

“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

Fools , Question , Water , Country

“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

Business , Thinking

“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

World

“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

Feeling , Thinking , Drawing

“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

Literature , Learning , Heart

“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

Cry

“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’

Nature , Study

“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

Home , Boy , Learning , Country

“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

Hate , Past , Country

“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

Time

“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