Politics - christiansquoting.org.uk

One reason why George Washington
Is held in such veneration:
He never blamed his problems
On the former Administration.

Hall's Laws of Politics:
(1) The voters want fewer taxes and more spending.
(2) Citizens want honest politicians until they want something fixed.
(3) Constituency drives out consistency (i.e., liberals defend military spending, and conservatives social spending in their own districts).

Headline: Bear takes over Disneyland in Pooh D'Etat!

Revolution is an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.

The voters have spoken, the bastards.

Guy Fawkes -- the only man who ever entered Parliament with honest intentions.

Politicians, like diapers, should be changed regularly, and for much the same reasons.

There is no worse heresy then that the office sanctifies the holder of it. -- Lord Acton

These bickerings of opposite parties, and their mutual reproaches their declamations, their sing-song, their triumphs and defiances, their dismals and prophecies, are all delusion.-- John Adams to Abigail; Jul 16, 1774

I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate."- John Adams

I agree with you that in politics the middle way is none at all. - John Adams (1767-1848) In "Adam," no. 299, "Samples from Almost Illegible Notebooks," 1962.

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences."-- Susan B. Anthony

I may be president of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damned business.- Chester A. Arthur(1830-1886) US president: Responding to a visitor asking him about his expensive tastes.

Man is by nature a political animal.-- Aristotle

The best political community is formed by citizens of the middleclass. Aristotle

Those with a more liberal viewpoint such as Mr. Weeks rarely esteem those to their social and theological right as compassionate. JB

The politician is an acrobat; he keeps his balance by doing the opposite of what he says. Marice Barres (1862 &endash; 1923);

You don't have to fool all the people all of the time; you just have to fool enough to get elected. Gerald Barza

The British electors will not vote for a man who does not wear a hat.-- Lord Beaverbrook

Even Napoleon had his Watergate.-- Yogi Berra

POLITICS: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911) - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men. Dan. 4:17

Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable . . . the art of the next best.--Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) Remark to Prince Meyer von Waldeck, 11 Aug 1867

People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.-Otto von Bismarck

The fight for liberty is one in which we ought to be willing to engage. It goes without saying that Christians who judge the battle to be one that requires active participation are required to fight in accordance with the appropriate application of Christian "just war" criteria. In the political arena, the rule of civility is top of the list. - John Bolt, A Free Church, A Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper's American Public Theology, Eerdmans, 2001 p.384

In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.-- Napoleon Bonaparte

In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.-- Christian Nevell Bovee

No wonder that, when a political career is so precarious, men of worth and capacity hesitate to embrace it. They cannot afford to be thrown out of their life's course by a mere accident.-- James Bryce (1838-1922) "The American Commonwealth," vol. 2, ch. 58, 1888.

Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair. George Burns

I have no consistency, except in politics; and that probably arises from my indifference to the subject altogether.-- Lord Byron

Sometimes in politics one must duel with skunks, but no one should be fool enough to allow the skunks to choose the weapons.-Joe Cannon (R-IL)

Vain hope, to make people happy by politics.~ Thomas Carlyle 1795 - 1881, Journal, (Oct 10, 1831)

If there is one eternal truth of politics, it is that there are always a dozen good reasons for doing nothing.-- John le Carre

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles. Jimmy Carter (1924-____)

Vain hope to make men happy by politics! -- Thomas Carlyle, _Journal_, 1831

In politics, there is no use looking beyond the next fortnight. - Joseph Chamberlain (1836 &endash; 1914)

There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter. Anyone who takes that role must pay a price.- Shirley Chisholm (1924-____) In "Words of Women Quotations for Success," by Power Dynamics Publishing, 1997

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.-- Winston Churchill

I would have been glad to have lived under my woodside, and to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than to have undertaken this government. --Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)_To Parliament_ [1658]

What this country needs is more unemployed politicians. - Angela Davis (1944 &endash; )

A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man that thinks men can be turned into angels by an election is a reformer and remains at large.-- Finley Peter Dunne

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. George Eliot

For the whole of my political life, Labour has espoused a view of human nature which is simply wrong. The self-regarding side has been ignored or suppressed" All the cant that we paraded on stilts, the notion that we were only motivated by altruism, must have left the punters bewildered and angry: it is just not how the world works. "Our job now is to show how self-interest &endash; a natural and wholesome instinct, the greatest driving force in all of us &endash; can also promote the common good.The last government failed to distinguish between self-interest and selfish greed. If people are worrying about their future, their children's future, the care of their elderly parents, they won't have time or sympathy for more vulnerable people. Our aim must be to make them so happy that we can win their support for other people less fortunate. Frank Field

The United States has not sent troops to the Saudi desert to preserve democratic principles. The Saudi monarch is a feudal regime that does not even allow women to drive cars. Surely it is not American policy to make the world safe for feudalism. This is about money, about protecting governments loyal to America and punishing those that are not, and about who will set the price of oil. ~ Thomas L. Friedland, 'Washington's Vital Interests', NY Times.

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.-John Kenneth Galbraith

There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten. Indira Gandhi

In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country of the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.-- Charles De Gaulle

In the tumult of men and events, solitude was my temptation; now it is my friend. What other satisfaction can be sought once you have confronted History? - Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970) "War Memoirs," vol. 3, ch. 7, 1959.

So why did I join? (The Christian Peoples Alliance) Well, when I came to the UK I saw it was a Christian country - its Christian foundations were the reason for tolerant and compassionate asylum regime. Over time I realised that Christianity underpinned both law and our political institutions. Yet today it is under threat. Truly we are witnessing a clash of cultures - not Christianity versus Islam, but religious world views against secular fundamentalisms. What are we to do about it? For me, the CPA is a means to renew the consent for the Christian world view in public life and policy. When our opponents talk of 'pluralism', I find thisÝis a mask for an agenda to privatise Christianity. They oppose the idea that Christianity should remain public truth in the public square. They want it to be one choice among many. How often are we told "You can have that view, but keep it to yourself"? "- Ram Gidoomal "Karma, Politics and the Holy Spirit" - A Review of the CPA's Future, Address to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Group, Saturday June 19th 2204, Friends House, Euston

Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right. - William E. Gladstone (1809 &endash; 1898)

How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
Goldsmith, _The Traveller_

There's nothing left . . . but to get drunk. - Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) When asked what a President should do after leaving office; in "Rutherford B. Hayes and His America," by Harry Barnard, p 503, 1954.

The two major political parties can be summed up this way: There are two parties, one is the Stupid Party and the other is the Evil Party. Occasionally these two parties create legislation that is both stupid and evil. This is called bi-partisianship. -- Andrew Grooms

The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the rest of the nation.-- Lord Halifax, 1750

In political matters feeling often decides more correctly than reason. -- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 173

To err is human. To blame someone else is politics.
Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-1978) In "The Speaker's Electronic Reference Collection," AApex Software,1994.

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.-- HUMPHREY, HUBERT HORATIO (1911-1978, )

The concentrating [of powers] in the same hands is precisely the definition of despotic government. It will be no alleviation that these powers will be exercised by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one.-- Thomas Jefferson

How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes? Johnson: Taxation No Tyranny

Politicks are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politicks, and their whole conduct proceeds upon it.- Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Life of Johnson)

Faction seldom leaves a man honest, however it might find him.- Samuel Johnson: Milton (Lives of the Poets)

Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things. - Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Life of Johnson)

Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things. -- Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Life of Johnson)

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.-- Henry Kissinger

Anyone in his position needs to be whiter than white.-- Dame Jill Knight MP on Nelson Mandela, BBC Radio Ulster, 1990.

Politicophobia is not calvinistic, is not Christian, is not ethical.
Abraham Kuyper 1869, in Abraham Kuyper a Biography, Fank Vanden Berg, Paideia Press, 1978.p 48.

The more I see of the representatives of the people, the more I admire my dogs.- Alphonse de Lamartine

Many Christians are reluctant to become involved in public affairs be cause politics is a "dirty business", but the same people are generally quite happy to go into business life, which is in its way just as "dirty". If the dubious practices and moral compromises of every walk of life were dissected and made known with the glare of publicity which shines on the activities of politicians, then those who like to think that they can keep their hands clean would have very few professions to choose from. John Lawrence, Hard Facts [1958]

I once said cynically of a politician, "He'll double-cross that bridge when he comes to it.--Oscar Levant

To be happy at home, said Johnson, is the end of all human endeavour. As long as we are thinking only of natural values we must say that the sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a man alone reading a book that interests him; and that all economics, politics, laws, armies, and institutions, save in so far as they prolong and multiply such scenes, are a mere ploughing the sand and sowing the ocean, a meaningless vanity and vexation of spirit. ... But do not let us mistake necessary evils for good. The mistake is easily made. Fruit has to be tinned if it is to be transported, and has to lose thereby some of its good qualities. But one meets people who have learned actually to prefer the tinned fruit to the fresh. A sick society must think much about politics, as a sick man must think much about his digestion: to ignore the subject may be fatal cowardice for the one as for the other. But if either comes to regard it as the natural food of the mind - if either forgets that we think of such things only in order to be able to think of something else - then what was undertaken for the sake of health has become itself a new and deadly disease.--C. S. Lewis "Membership" Sobernost #31 (June 1945)

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.-- Groucho Marx

Does a political party have no greater priority than its selfish self-perpetuation? G Maurie

I voted for the Democrats because I didn't like the way the Republicans were running the country. Which is turning out to be like shooting yourself in the head to stop your headache.--Jack Mayberry

Being in politics is like being in a football game. You have to be smart enough to know the game and stupid enough to think it important.-- Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN)

You can be a rooster one day and a feather duster the next ~Frank McManus, on political life, Sydney Morning Herald 28 Dec 1974

God is a Republican, and Santa Claus is a Democrat. --H. L. Mencken

Advertisement: African Grey Parrot for sale. Good talker. Owner no longer shares political opinions.-- The News Quiz BBC Radio 4

I reject the cynical view that politics is inevitably, or even usually, a dirty business. ~ Richard M. Nixon (August 1973)

A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows. O'Henry

As any politician will tell you: you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time -- and usually that's enough. - Robert Orben

Politics should be limited in scope to war, protection of property, and the occasional precautionary beheading of a member of the ruling class. P.J. O'Rourke

Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.-- George Orwell

We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are perpetual and eternal and those interests it is our duty to follow. --Lord Palmerston, 1848

Public office is the last refuge of the incompetent. - Boies Penrose (1860 &endash; 1921) US senator (PA)

Life is primarily political because politics is inevitably religious and has as its 'raison d'etre', its entire rationale, the administration of the law of an ultimate authority, i.e. a god, in the totality of life. In this sense, therefore, we can say that Christianity is the only 'true' politics. All other political ideologies are false, i.e. idolatrous.The body of Christ, as the 'polis' (the city) of God, whose 'demos' (people) constitute the 'ekklesia' (the body politic), is a political organism, and all other political organisms are apostate and in rebellion against God, their rightful King. Stephen Perks ,'Christianity As A Political Faith' 'Christianity & Society', April 2004

Sir, At midnight the Nanny State will truly have arrived: we will all have to have our meat cut up for us.
JULIA PIKE Letter to The Times 16.12.97

The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. -- Plato

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. Plato

A little nonsense now and then is not a bad thing. Where would we politicians be if we were not allowed to talk it sometimes? Enoch Powell 1964

For a politician to complain about the press is like a ship's captain complaining about the sea. Enoch Powell Guardian article, 1984

I was born a Tory, am a Tory and shall die a Tory. I never yet heard that it was any part of the faith of a Tory to take the institutions and liberties, the laws and customs which this country has evolved over centuries and merge them with those of eight other nations into a new-made artificial state, and what is more to do so without the willing approbation and consent of the nation. Enoch Powell February 1974

No one is forced to be a politician. It can only compare with fox hunting and writing poetry. These are two things that men do for sheer enjoyment, too.
Enoch Powell 1973

All politics are based on the indifference of the majority.-- James Reston

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. REAGAN, RONALD (1911-)

The Conservative Party is a broad church....The problem is that we don't have enough worshippers at the moment.-- John Redwood 6.5.97

All politics are based on the indifference of the majority.--James Reston, _New York Times_ [June 12, 1968]

He who lives by demogoguery shall die by tabloid poisoning. -- Joe Rogaly

Democrats are the only reason to vote for Republicans.--Will Rogers

Kuyper's simple yet profound Christian vision was based upon a deep faith as Christ as the King over the entire cosmos. The exercise of this Christian vision in public affairs can be called "political spiritualiy" - the ability to discern the directions sin and grace take in public affairs. Politial spirituality is an integrated Christian attitude which enriches both thought and action. ...This attitude of political spirtiuality must not be confused with Kuyper's political tactics. Tactics change as times and situations differ, "political spiritualiy" remains a part of a Christian's obligations to do all things to the glory of God. The attitude of christians towards a secularised society determines what they think and do.
H Evan Runner, preface to The Practice of Political Spirituality, McKendree R Langley, Paedeia Pres 1984, p3

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny. Bertrand Russell

People vote their resentment, not their appreciation. The average man does not vote for anything but against something. Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)

A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected.-- Carl Sandberg

For socialists, not just the wealth, but the guilt, must be redistributed. Andrew Sandlin

....the difference between the west and the rest is that western societies are governed by politics;the rest are ruled by power.- Roger Scruton, The West and the Rest, ISI Books, 2002, p 7

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry. G B Shaw

Some day a politician will arise who will be so devoted to truth that he will follow it, knowing that by doing so, he will go down to defeat. That day will be the restoration of politics as principles; it will also be the rebirth of a nation. --Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979) _Way to Inner Peace_ [1955]

Wherever I go in this country, people know there is a problem.-- Billy Snedden, leader of the Australian Liberal Party, campaigning in 1974.

Five decades? Six? Seven? How long should it take to understand that the life of a community cannot be reduced to politics or wholly encompassed by government? The time in which we live has unfathomable depths beneath it. Our age is a mere film on the surface of time. --Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, _November 1916_

"crisis": any situation you want to change
"bilingual": unable to speak English
"equal opportunity": preferential treatment
"non-judgmental": blaming society
"compassion": the use of tax money to buy votes
"insensitivity": objections to the use of tax money to buy votes
"simplistic": an argument you disagree with but can't answer
"rehabilitation": magic word said before releasing criminals
"demonstration": a riot by people you agree with
"mob violence": a riot by people you disagree with
"a matter of principle": a political controversy involving the convictions of liberals
"an emotional issue": a political controversy involving the convictions of conservatives
"funding": money from the government
"commitment": more money from the government
"docu-drama": a work of fiction about famous people
"autobiography": a work of fiction about yourself
"federal budget": a work of fiction about government spending
"people's republic": a place where you do what you are told or get shot
"national liberation movements": organizations trying to create people's republics
"policy research": looking for statistics to support the position you have already taken
"stereotypes": behavior patterns you don't want to think about
"Reaganomics": media explanation of downturns in the economy
"robust economy": media explanation of upturns in the economy
"constitutional interpretation": judges reading their own political views into the Constitution
"politicizing the courts": criticizing judges for reading their own political views into the Constitution
"a proud people": chauvinists you like
"bigots": chauvinists you don't like
"anti-war movement": disarmament advocates who know the idea won't fly under its own name
"private greed": making money selling people what they want
"public service": gaining power to make people do what you want them to
"innovation": something new
"new innovation": something new by someone who doesn't understand English
"competency": competence, as described by the incompetent
"moderate Arabs": mythical beings to whom State Department officials make sacrificial offerings
"special interest lobby": politically organized conservatives
"public interest group": politically organized liberals
"accountability": holding teachers, public officials, and private businesses responsible for the consequences of their misdeeds
"chilling effect": holding journalists responsible for the consequences of their misdeeds
Thomas Sowell A POLITICAL GLOSSARY (From Compassion Versus Guilt and Other Essays, NY: Morrow,1987)

Politics! You can wrap it up in fancy ribbons, but you can't hide the smell.-- Norman Spinrad

I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. Adlai Stevenson

This woman is headstrong,obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated.-- ICI personnel report 1948 rejecting a job application from Margaret Thatcher

You can't fool too many of the people too much of the time. James Thurber

Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent,hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percentthat get all the publicity. But then we elected them.~ Lily Tomlin

You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment -- Francis Urquhart in Michael Dobbs' "House Of Cards" (TV screenplay)

As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it. - Martin Van Buren (1782 &endash; 1862)

Politicians fascinate because they constitute such a paradox; they are an elite that accomplishes mediocrity for the public good. - George Will