“It is not unusual for electorates to want contradictory things, and politicians often make promises accordingly.”

— Chris Patten, book East and West

Chris Patten, East and West: The Last Governor of Hong Kong on Power, Freedom and the Future, Pan Books, second edition, 1999, page 45.

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Chris Patten6

British politician and colonial administrator 1944

Charles Foster Johnson (1953) American musician

March 8, 2008 http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=29193&only

“Hookers have to deliver on their promise… unlike politicians.”

Marty Feldman (1934–1982) British actor and comedian

Marty Feldman - Six Degrees of Separation, BBC4.

“Now he found out a new thing--namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.”

Mark Twain book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Variant: To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.
Source: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Ch. 22.

“It would seem that making unusual connections is unusually difficult and, often, rather "indirect"—be it via words, images, or whatever. The bizarre structures used by mnemonist (and, presumably unknowingly, by each of us) suggests that arbitrary connections require devious pathways.”

Marvin Minsky (1927–2016) American cognitive scientist

K-Linesː A Theory of Memory (1980)

“A true conservative — who is, above all, an anti-ideologue — will often be attacked for alleged inconsistency, for changing positions, for promising change but not a radical break with the past, for pursuing two objectives — like liberty and authority, or change and continuity — that seem to all ideologues as completely contradictory.”

Andrew Sullivan (1963) Journalist, writer, blogger

"The Necessary Contradictions of a Conservative", The Daily Dish (13 November 2013) http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/11/13/the-necessary-contradictions-of-a-conservative/

“A politician is someone who promises a bridge even when there's no water”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

“Some promises are best broken. Trust me on this: I’m a politician.”

Alastair Reynolds book Pushing Ice

Source: Pushing Ice (2005), Chapter 34 (p. 475)

“But to my mind, it is not a politician's job to turn policeman. The most important thing about transparency of electoral financing is that one does not get the wrong sort of associations emerging. And they cannot emerge if one does not know the source of the money.”

Paula Lehtomäki (1972) Finnish politician

Election financiers Did the ministers and others know whose money they were getting? http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Election+financiers+/1135236506359 Helsingin Sanomat 20.5.2008

“Nobody can credibly promise to bring the old jobs back; what you can promise — and Mrs. Clinton did — are things like guaranteed health care and higher minimum wages. But working-class whites overwhelmingly voted for politicians who promise to destroy those gains.”

Paul Krugman (1953) American economist

The New York Times Columns, The Populism Perplex (November 25, 2016)

“Politicians promise you heaven before election and give you hell after”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

“It is not unusual for electorates to want contradictory things, and politicians often make promises accordingly.”

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