Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. ~Nikita Khrushchev
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. ~Richard Armour
Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and all for the same reason. ~José Maria de Eça de Queiroz, translated from Portuguese
Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against. ~W.C. Fields
We live in a world in which politics has replaced philosophy. ~Martin L. Gross, A Call for Revolution, 1993
There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle. ~Alexis de Tocqueville
We’d all like to vote for the best man, but he’s never a candidate. ~Frank McKinney “Kin” Hubbard
All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field. ~Albert Einstein
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right. ~H.L. Mencken, 1956
What is conservatism? Is it not the adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried? ~Abraham Lincoln
I think it’s about time we voted for senators with breasts. After all, we’ve been voting for boobs long enough. ~Clarie Sargent, Arizona senatorial candidate
A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future. ~Leonard Bernstein, The New York Times, 30 October 1988
Take our politicians: they’re a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of cliches the first prize. ~Saul Bellow
In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant. ~Charles de Gaulle
Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. ~Plato
Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear. ~William E. Gladstone, 1866
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it. ~Clarence Darrow
George Washington is the only president who didn’t blame the previous administration for his troubles. ~Author Unknown
Truth is not determined by majority vote. ~Doug Gwyn
An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. ~George Eliot, Felix Holt, Chapter 5 (Thanks Julie!)
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy. ~Ernest Benn
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness. ~Stewart Udall
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. ~John Kenneth Galbraith
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt, radio speech, 26 October 1939
Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. ~John Quinton
A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they’re dead. ~Leo Rosten
The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it. ~P.J. O’Rourke
Conservative, n: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time. ~Alfred E. Wiggam
Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don’t know what they are conserving. ~Robertson Davies
Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative. ~John Kenneth Galbraith, New York Times, 8 October 1989
Don’t vote, it only encourages them. ~Billy Connolly, An Audience with Billy Connolly, 1985 (Thanks, Gordon!)
The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal – that you can gather votes like box tops – is… the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. ~Adlai Stevenson, speech, Democratic National Convention, 18 August 1956
The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. ~Adlai E. Stevenson
I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them. ~Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952
Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country – and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians. ~Charles Krauthammer
Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. ~Doug Larson
Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so. ~Gore Vidal
The reason there are so few female politicians is that it is too much trouble to put makeup on two faces. ~Maureen Murphy
I am working for the time when unqualified blacks, browns, and women join the unqualified men in running our government. ~Cissy Farenthold
There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen. ~Author Unknown
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. ~Oscar Ameringer
Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right? ~Robert Orben
Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you. ~Author Unknown
Conservatism is the policy of make no change and consult your grandmother when in doubt. ~Woodrow Wilson
I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. ~Charles de Gaulle
