“I am uncomfortable with the thought that serious thinkers about politics may retire into the ivory tower and write difficult—if often very interesting—essays and books for their colleagues alone, leaving debates over the prospects of modern political life to the punditry of contributors to the op-ed pages, or the shouting matches that pass for political debate on some television channels.”

— Alan Ryan

Introduction: Thinking about Politics.
On Politics: A History of Political Thought: From Herodotus to the Present (2012)

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Alan Ryan 20

British philosopher 1940

Guy Halsall (1964) English historian

Source: Quotaes, Two Worlds Become One (2014), p. 519

“One of the things that people hate most about modern politics is the almost mindless partisanship that passes for debate. Ya-boo, Punch and Judy, call it what you will, the public is sick of it.”

Theresa May (1956) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech to the Conservative Party conference http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/oct/07/conservatives2002.conservatives1 (07 October 2002)

“What debaters in ivory towers often fail to realize is that when it comes to achieving well-defined goals, both theism and atheism can work.”

Varadaraja V. Raman (1932) American physicist

Truth and Tension in Science and Religion

“It is not fair to Tony or to the Government that the entire focus of political debate at the moment is about me. I know I'm in a very special position, I'm the wife of the Prime Minister, I have an interesting job and a wonderful family, but I also know I am not Superwoman. The reality of my daily life is that I'm juggling a lot of balls in the air. Some of you must experience that.”

Cherie Blair (1954) British barrister and wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair

"'Maybe I should have asked more questions'", The Times, 11 December 2002, p. 4.
Address to the 'Partners in Excellence' awards presentation, 10 December 2002, commenting on the scandal of her use of convicted fraudster Peter Foster to help her buy two flats in Bristol.

“Thanks Diane. I hope we can all agree that this debate should be about Syria not UK party politics”

Jo Cox (1974–2016) UK politician

Response in Twitter to Diane Abbott after she called Cox and John Woodcock 'sad' for backing military action against the wishes of Jeremy Corbyn — Furious Labour MPs accuse Diane Abbott of 'bullying' over Syria vote http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11925253/Furious-Labour-MPs-accuse-Diane-Abbott-of-bullying-over-Syria-vote.html (11 October 2015)

“Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

"O'Reilly Open Source Conference: Day 3" by Paul Weinstein, in Apache Week (26 July 2002) http://www.apacheweek.com/features/oscon2002
2000s

“Painting is a very difficult thing. It absorbs the whole man, body and soul – thus I have passed blindly many things which belong to the real and political life. I assume, though, that there are two worlds: the world of spiritual life and the world of political reality. Both are manifestations of life which may sometimes coincide but are very different in principle. I must leave it to you [the audience] to decide which is the more important.”

Max Beckmann (1884–1950) German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor and writer

Source: 1930s, On my Painting (1938), p. 18

“This Parliament is led by Scotland's first minority Government. That innovation was unintended - very un intended - but it is one which has breathed new life into our political debate.”

Alex Salmond (1954) Scottish National Party politician and former First Minister of Scotland

Third Session of Parliament (June 30, 2007)

“I am very much afraid that the loss of Cyrenaica will have serious political consequences for the Duce.”

Ugo Cavallero (1880–1943) Italian general

Quoted in "Der Afrikafeldzug: Rommels Wüstenkrieg 1941-1943" - Page 112 - by Franz Kurowski - World War, 1939-1945 - 1986

“In the political debate we often ask ourselves the question of our identity. But our identity is never built on narrow-mindedness, or on first names or crampedness.”

Emmanuel Macron (1977) 25th President of the French Republic

Macron lashes out at Zemmour: “Our identity is not built on narrow-mindedness" https://palnws.be/2021/09/macron-haalt-uit-naar-zemmour-onze-identiteit-is-niet-gebouwd-op-bekrompenheid/
2017, 2021

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