Quotes about politician (963 quotes, page 10)

“I think he is the most talented and fearless Republican politician I’ve seen in the last 30 years. I further think that he is going to run for president, and he is going to create something.”

Ted Cruz (1970) American politician

James Carville, James Carville: Ted Cruz Is The Most 'Fearless Republican' I've Seen In '30 Years' http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/05/james-carville-ted-cruz_n_3219572.html, May 5, 2013.

Thinking

“He has no serious interest whatsoever in politics. He was compelled to make some political statements, a while ago, to achieve a particular purpose. I would not like to specify more on this particular issue. Now that he has achieved that objective, he has no further interest in politics. We have advised him to steer clear of politics. If you want to help people, we advised him, please do it as an individual, not as a politician.”

Rajinikanth (1950) Indian actor

Ramachandra Rao, his friend
You can see God in him at times (22 December 1999)

Help , Making love , People

“But for most practical purposes Tarbean had two pieces: Waterside and Hillside. Waterside is where people are poor. That makes them beggars, thieves, and whores. Hillside is where people are rich. That makes them solicitors, politicians, and courtesans.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 22, “A Time for Demons” (p. 160)

Whore , Making love , People

“Happy family: The existence and maintenance of [this] is thought to make a politician fit for public office. According to this theory, the public are less concerned by whether or not they are effectively represented than by the need to be assured that the penises and vaginas of public officials are only used in legally sanctioned circumstances.”

John Ralston Saul The Doubter's Companion

"Happy family"
The Doubter's Companion (1994)

Family , Happiness , Making love

“History is a powerful subject which can be used to create a true historical consciousness. Unfortunately, it can also he misused and we often sec how politician distort it to whip up the emotion of people in older to achieve their political agenda. As they have a large following their version of history becomes popular among their followers. If not corrected the falsification of history is accepted as the absolute truth. This reaise the question whether historians should challenge the popular emotions of the people and correct historical facts or keep silent and let the falsification go on unchecked.”

Mubarak Ali (1941) Historian, activist, scholar

What History Tells Us, Chapter: Task of the Historian, p. 25
History, What History Tells Us

Truth , People , History , Question

“Here is the bottom line. When we are dealing with this crisis, we need to listen to the scientists, to the researchers, to the medical folks, not politicians. We need an emergency response to this crisis and we need it now.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

2020-03-12
Now Is the Time for Solidarity: Bernie Sanders Addresses Health and Economic Crisis Facing US as Coronavirus Spreads
Jake Johnson
Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/12/now-time-solidarity-bernie-sanders-addresses-health-and-economic-crisis-facing-us
2020

“It is obviously possible to make more money by not being a full-time politician. I don't want to put too fine a point on it, but you have to make sacrifices sometimes.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

Conservative Leadership Contest Hustings in Darlington https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1147103540827082754 (5 July 2019)
2010s, 2019

Money , Making love , Time

“It is a cliche that the gun is a penis-symbol as well as a weapon. Gun organizations are conventionally masculine in cultural style; hunting and gun magazines dress their models in check shirts and boots to emphasize their masculinity. The gun lobby hardly has to labour the inference that politicians trying to take away our guns are emasculating us. At both symbolic and practical levels, the defense of gun ownership is a defence of hegemonic masculinity.”

Raewyn Connell book Masculinities

Source: Masculinities (1995), Chapter 9

“Let me be absolutely clear: in terms of potential deaths and the impact on our economy, the crisis we face from coronavirus is on the scale of a major war, and we must act accordingly. Nobody knows how many fatalities we may see, but they could equal or surpass the U.S. casualties we saw in World War II. It is an absolute moral imperative that our response -- as a government, as a society, as business communities, and as individuals -- meets the enormity of this crisis... If our neighbor or co-worker gets sick, we have the potential to get sick. If our neighbors lose their jobs, then our local economies suffer, and we may lose our jobs. If doctors and nurses do not have the equipment and staffing capacity they need now, people we know and love may die. The American people deserve transparency... We need daily information -- clear, science-based information -- from credible scientific voices, not politicians.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

2020

Science , Death , Business , War

“American politicians over the past 25 years have learned to quietly dismiss big rallies, demonstrations, and even temporary occupations, because they have gone nowhere.”

Ralph Nader (1934) American consumer rights activist and corporate critic

A quote from the book
"How The Rats Reformed The Congress" (2018)

Past , Learning

“The young will rebel against the ideologies of old whether they are imposed on them by politicians, religious leaders or intellectuals. The surge of young voices is already being heard and their demands will have impact.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The Art of Living: Living within the Laws of Life (2006)

“Within a few short years, without a shot's being fired, the concept of holistic health has been legitimized by federal and state programs, endorsed by politicians, urged and underwritten by insurance companies, co-opted in terminology (if not always in practice) by many physicians, and adopted by medical students. Consumers demand "holistic health," a whole new assortment of entrepreneurs promise it, and medical groups look for speakers to explain it.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

Source: The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Eight, Healing Ourselves, p. 242

Health

“The real hero of Jaws is the mayor. A gigantic fish is eating all your constituents and he decides to keep the beaches open. OK, in that instance he was actually wrong. But in principle, we need more politicians like the mayor - we are often the only obstacle against all the nonsense which is really a massive conspiracy against the taxpayer.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

Speech given by Johnson at Lloyd's of London in 2006, quoted in * 2007-07-18

Boris Johnson inspired by Jaws mayor

Graeme Wilson and George Jones

The Telegraph

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1557765/Boris-Johnson-inspired-by-Jaws-mayor.html
2000s, 2006

Fish

“Even the toughest politicians sometimes wonder whether political life is worth the personal cost.”

Tony Abbott (1957) Australian politician

Source: Leader of the Opposition (2009-2015), Battlelines book, (2013), p. 4.

Personality , Life

“Of all the animals in creation, politicians have the shortest memories.”

Morris West (1916–1999) Australian writer

Pavel Laszlo in Ch. 15, p. 260
The Ringmaster (1991)

Animals , Memory

“In politics there is no morality anyway. The nature of the game precludes it. A politician's career depends upon the fickle wind of public opinion. He is forced to trim his conscience to catch every shift of the breeze.”

Morris West (1916–1999) Australian writer

Gil Langton in Ch. 3, p. 38
The Ringmaster (1991)

Game , Dependency , Nature

“There was a time when politicians like you preferred to use a dog whistle, but those days seem quaint now. There’s something to be said for using a foghorn to blast your racism across the continents. At least we all know what kind of politics you represent.”

Richard Wolffe (1968) American journalist

About Donald Trump.
Let's drop the euphemisms: Donald Trump is a racist president (2018)

Dogs , Time

“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)

“The second reason I focus on capitalism is that the responses to today's economic collapse by Trump, the GOP and most Democrats carefully avoid any criticism of capitalism. They all debate the virus, China, foreigners, other politicians, but never the system they all serve. When Trump and others press people to return to churches and jobs—despite risking their and others' lives—they place reviving a collapsed capitalism ahead of public health.”

Richard D. Wolff (1942) American economist

COVID-19 and the Failures of Capitalism (2020)

People , Health

“In a well-ordered state, the sovereign power must remain in one only, without communicating any part thereof unto the state (for in that case it should be a popular government and no monarchy). Wise politicians, philosophers, divines and historiographers, have highly commended a monarchy above all other commonweals. It is not to please the prince, that they hold this opinion; but for the safety and happiness of the subjects. And contrariwise, when as they shall limit and restrain the sovereign power of a monarch, to subject him to the general estates, or to the council; the sovereignty hath no firm foundation, but they frame a popular confusion, or a miserable anarchy, which is the plague of all estates and commonweals.”

Robert Filmer (1588–1653) English writer

Source: The Power of Kings, p. 325

Parting , Communication

“And you know, woe betide politicians that don't listen to what voters tell them. You know, I think a future Europe will have to look at things like the free movement of labour rules.”

Tom Watson (Labour politician) (1967) British politician

Labour's Tom Watson: EU free movement rules must change https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36523759 BBC News (14 June 2016)
2016

Future , Thinking

“We Americans are not usually thought to be a submissive people, but of course we are. Why else would we allow our country to be destroyed? Why else would we be rewarding its destroyers? Why else would we all — by proxies we have given to greedy corporations and corrupt politicians — be participating in its destruction? Most of us are still too sane to piss in our own cistern, but we allow others to do so and we reward them for it. We reward them so well, in fact, that those who piss in our cistern are wealthier than the rest of us.
How do we submit? By not being radical enough. Or by not being thorough enough, which is the same thing.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

"Compromise, Hell!" Orion magazine (November/December 2004) http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/147/

People , Country

“Local participation is the number one need. That is democracy. Politicians talk about democracy, but there really is not much democracy. They are the ones who make the decisions, and they are the government. In this way, your democracy is diminished. Democracy is democracy not only through voting but through participation. The more participation there is, the more democracy is a reality. Until that pertains we can only say there is a move towards democracy, no real democracy in the world.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The World Teacher for All Humanity (2007)

Democracy , Way , Reality , Decision

“Politicians who attack the dream of a federal Europe are racist bigots intent on undermining the Continent's freedom and peace.”

Jacques Delors (1925) French economist and politician

Speech to the European Parliament (4 May 1994), quoted in The Times (5 May 1994), p. 1
President of the European Commission

Peace , Dreams , Freedom

“Our prime task now is to look after the environment. This will become the responsibility of every individual, politician, guru, saint and scientist. Our energies will be spent in making it healthy again. When that happens there will be less suffering, disease and poverty.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

Share International Magazine

Making love , Suffering , Disease

“In a free-market economy, the consumer is king: labor unions don't run things, business people don't run things, bankers don't run things, politicians don't run things, but the success of a business depends on how people spend their money.”

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

In response to the question "What is your opinion on direct democracy, where the citizens themselves make law, rather than elected representatives?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-nfaTZNWcI (May 14, 2015)
2015

Money , Dependency , Success , Business

“A major difference between politicians and the free press is that the press usually corrects itself when it gets something wrong. Politicians don't.”

Jeff Flake (1962) American politician

Farewell speech to the U.S. Senate (2018)

“The politicians still say that it’s you or me, and that’s why they go for the gun.”

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist

From 1980s onwards, Buckminster Fuller Talks Politics (1982)

“Current relations between Russia and the US struggle through the worst times. Historians, politicians, political scientists cannot recall any other time, when our relations were in such a miserable state. Other countries, international peace and security suffer because of this...”

Anatoly Antonov (1955) Russian diplomat and statesman, Russian Ambassador to the United States (since 2017)

Speech at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterrey (13 October 2018)

Peace , Time , Country , Suffering

“An artist is the magician put among men to gratify — capriciously — their urge for immortality. The temples are built and brought down around him, continuously and contiguously, from Troy to the fields of Flanders. If there is any meaning in any of it, it is in what survives as art, yes even in the celebration of tyrants, yes even in the celebration of nonentities. What now of the Trojan War if it had been passed over by the artist's touch? Dust. A forgotten expedition prompted by Greek merchants looking for new markets. A minor redistribution of broken pots. But it is we who stand enriched, by a tale of heroes, of a golden apple, a wooden horse, a face that launched a thousand ships — and above all, of Ulysses, the wanderer, the most human, the most complete of all heroes — husband, father, son, lover, farmer, soldier, pacifist, politician, inventor and adventurer.”

Tom Stoppard Travesties

Joyce, Act I
Stoppard called this "the most important" speech in the play
Source: Travesties (1974)

War , Art , Horse , Relation ships

“I'm no politician. I think my being Miss Universe will show people that Israel has another side, not only war.”

Rina Mor (1956) Israeli lawyer and former Miss Universe

"Miss Universe Captivates New York" (1976)

Universe , War , Thinking , People

“If we are only organizing for elections, we are not going to win the world that we need...No one politician is the answer. No one president is the answer. You are the answer, mass movements are the answer.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

via tweet https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1324895073776054273 on November 6, 2020
Twitter Quotes (2020), November 2020

World

“The New Deal has enormously increased the sense of awareness; it has contributed radically to the breakdown of confidence in the forms and procedures of yesterday. But it has offered us no comprehensible picture of a future in which we can believe. We cannot believe that this vague eleemosynary humanitarianism, coupled with ruthless aggrandizement by politicians, is a picture of a new heaven and a new earth.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 46

Sense , Self-confidence , Future , Confidence

“So long as the figures 'now superseded' and the academic projections based upon them held sway, it was possible for politicians to shrug their shoulders. With so much of immediate and indisputable importance on their hands, why should they attend to what was forecast for the end of the century, when most of them would be not only out of office but dead and gone? … It was not for them to heed the cries of anguish from those of their own people who already saw their towns being changed, their native places turned into foreign lands, and themselves displaced as if by a systematic colonisation. For these the much vaunted compassion of the parties and politicians was not available: the parties and the politicians preferred to be busy making speeches on race relations; and if any of their number dared to tell them the truth, even less than the whole truth, about what was happening and what would happen here in England, they denounced them as racialist and turned them out of doors. They could feel safe; for they said in their hearts: 'If trouble comes, it will not be in our time; let the next generation see to it!'”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

… The explosive which will blow us asunder is there and the fuse is burning, but the fuse is shorter than had been supposed. The transformation which I referred to earlier as being without even a remote parallel in our history, the occupation of the hearts of this metropolis and of towns and cities across England by a coloured population amounting to millions, this before long will be past denying. It is possible that the people of this country will, with good or ill grace, accept what they did not ask for, did not want and were not told of. My own judgment—it is a judgment which the politician has a duty to form to the best of his ability—I have not feared to give: it is—to use words I used two years and a half ago—that 'the people of England will not endure it'.
Source: Speech to the Carshalton and Banstead Young Conservatives at Carshalton Hall (15 February 1971), from Still to Decide (1972), pp. 202-203

Time , Dead , Business , People

“People are sick of fake politicians who have no core and say one thing in private and another in public, or are just obviously doing anything right before an election. My sense is that voters of all ideological persuasions prefer candidates who are just real about what they believe and what they want to do, even if it’s not necessarily the precise policy platform that you agree with. You want someone who’s wearing their values on their sleeve and not B.S.’ing*.”

Jon Ossoff (1987) American politician

Ossoff used more colorful language, but this is a family newspaper.
Quoted in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Jolt: Jon Ossoff says voters want ‘someone who’s not B.S.’ing’ (5 January 2020)

Sense , People

“After a long period when politicians weren't even sitting in the same building together, there actually was the churches working together, who in many ways provided the fabric that held society together.”

Donal McKeown (1950) Roman Catholic bishop

Donal McKeown says DUP views seen as 'nakedly sectarian' https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-23112107 (30 June 2013)

Way

“I’m not a politician, even though I play-act one when the boss tells me to—I’m allowed to change my mind when my understanding of the facts changes.”

Charles Stross The Laundry Files

Source: The Laundry Files, The Labyrinth Index (2018), Chapter 10, “Flight Plan” (p. 301)

Understanding , Change

“If our engineers became politicians, Huawei would have collapsed. Engineers should focus on developing good products. They don't need to read about politics. What's the point of them caring about political issues? If our engineers are all out protesting, who is going to pay them?”

Ren Zhengfei (1944) Chinese businessman

Interview with the Economist (September 10, 2019)

Reading

“Lodges are occult and secret centers of power! Journalists/politicians should be required by law to publicly declare whether they are members!”

Filip Dewinter (1962) Flemish politician

Filip Dewinter: Following the series in De Standaard, here's an anthology of tweets: http://vrijmetselarijvoordummies.blogspot.com/2012/02/twitter.html

Law , Secret

“Everybody knows that voters dislike pay increases for politicians, and they enjoy it when money is taken away from politicians.”

Bronisław Komorowski (1952) Polish politician, president of Poland

"Ex-president says Polish politicians are poorly paid" in Polskie Radio https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7784/Artykul/2786822,Expresident-says-Polish-politicians-are-poorly-paid (10 August 2021)

Money

“I have no faith in cats: they are a cold-blooded race; they are the politicians among domestic animals; they care little who is master, or what are the over-turnings, so their pickings are secure; and what are their midnight caucuses but primary meetings?”

Donald Grant Mitchell (1822–1908) American writer

Source: My Farm of Edgewood (1863), P. 49

Cats , Faith , Animals

“Morality has got nothing to do with the politicians. Simply, because the straight line is considered by them as the longest distance between the two points.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Politicians are liable to be attacked from every flank—simultaneously. They are suspicious, subtle, crafty and designing, and at the same time they are gullible, simple and foolish.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Volume II, p. 1314
War Memoirs (1938)

Time

“We've been conditioned to think that only politicians can solve our problems. But at some point, maybe we will wake up and recognize that it was the politicians who created our problems.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Said in a Fox Business interview https://www.facebook.com/FoxBusiness/posts/weve-been-conditioned-to-think-that-only-politicians-can-solve-our-problems-but-/10153892947535238/ (February 9, 2016)

Problem , Thinking

“We are in a state of bloodless civil war. No common principles, no respect for common institutions or traditions unite the various groups of politicians, who are struggling for power. To loot somebody or something is the common object under a thick varnish of pious phrases.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Letter to W. H. Smith (5 February 1889), quoted in Michael Bentley, Lord Salisbury's World: Conservative Environments in Late-Victorian Britain (2001), p. 65
1880s

War

“No one knows much about California politics, including California politicians.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 15 (p. 137)

“The money we raised was secondary. The main thing was, we spread the word and helped get the war ended ... What we did show was that musicians and people are more humane than politicians.”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

Source: George Harrison, 1992 in Joshua M. Greene, Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison, John Wiley & Sons (Hoboken, NJ, 2006; ISBN 978-0-470-12780-3).

Money , War , People , Help

“The cultivation -- even celebration -- of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.”

George Will (1941) American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author

Source: “Afflicted By Comfort” https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2004/01/11/afflicted-by-comfort/9aa0b1db-8b1f-4156-9bf9-8c9eb84ee6be/, The Washington Post, (January 11, 2004)

“I keep trying to resist the thought, but the thought keeps pushing its way back in: The Western world has sunk into madness. There are no solutions to anything. The talk of our politicians is the babbling of fools, but we keep electing them anyway. We are collectively insane.”

John Derbyshire (1945) writer

Source: Succouring the Poor https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/succouring-poor-john-derbyshire/, National Review, February 6, 2012.

World , Madness , Fools , Way

“Sophistry is one of the methods by which politicians dress up their policies in alien clothing, to pass them off as more desirable than they really are. Spin doctors thrive best where ‘democracy’ is the slogan.”

Catherine Rowett (1956) Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (born 1956)

Source: Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004), Ch. 7 : Spin doctors of the 5th century

Democracy , Clothes

“My secret weapon is my anger. That's what stimulates me as an artist. I want change. I want it yesterday. I'm pissed off at America. Society. American movies. American TV. American culture. American politicians. Capitalism. [...] Impatience and rage are always just beneath the surface for me.”

Dan Fante (1944–2015) American writer

Dan Fante [quote appears on Goodreads but does not state a source]
Unsourced

Secret , Rage , Change , Anger

“Politicians in the city are terrified of political and media backlash for holding antifa and far-left protesters accountable. The local and national media are staunchly on the side of antifa, regardless of their violence against police and property.”

Andy Ngo (1986) American conservative journalist and social‐media personality

Source: Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy (2021), pp. 60-61

“Politics is stressful, it's scary, tiresome. Acting is like a breath of fresh air. They're both fictional kind of creativity: politicians are bad actors.”

Hugh Grant (1960) British actor and film producer

“I am 10 per cent politician and 90 per cent human being.”

Chandra Shekhar (1927–2007) Indian politician

Source: As quoted in " I am 10% politician and 90% human being: Chandra Shekhar https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/voices/story/19800915-i-am-10percent-politician-and-90percent-human-being-chandra-shekhar-821445-2014-01-13", India Today (September 1980)

“Nobody understands a prostitute better than a politician.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

Understanding

“It is a fantasy to believe that you punish politicians by throwing them out of office. It is when they leave office that they start making the real money.”

Peter Hitchens (1951) author, journalist

2022-06-01
GB News Dewbs & Co

Money

“Too many politicians try to be something they're not. There is greatness and flaws in all of us, all in the same package. But I realized I had the ability to screw up but then move on. Being able to recognize a mistake and move on is necessary in politics.”

Joel Kleefisch (1971) US politician

All in the family: Former officials head in new direction https://www.wdtimes.com/news/local/article_b6ae2c56-15c7-11e9-8dfd-df72ef1b3f77.html (January 11, 2019)