The work of internal government has become the task of controlling the thousands of fifth-rate men.

-- Henry B. Adams

 

I didn't accept it. I received it.

-- Richard Allen, National Security Advisor¹ to President Reagan, explaining the $1000 in cash and two watches he was given by two Japanese journalists after he helped arrange a private interview for them with First Lady Nancy Reagan.

 

I don't know exactly what democracy is. But we need more of it.

-- Anonymous² Chinese Student, during protests in Tianamen Square, Beijing, 1989

 

Republican boys date Democratic girls. They plan to marry Republican girls, but feel they're entitled to a little fun first.

-- Anonymous

 

Asking politicians to vote themselves out of power is like asking rabbits not to multiply, it ain't natural.

-- Bob Beckel, on term limits, CBS This Morning, 3/30/95

 

CAPITAL, n. The seat of misgovernment. That which provides the fire, the pot, the dinner, the table and the knife and fork for the anarchist⁴; the part of the repast that himself supplies is the disgrace before meat.

-- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911

 

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

-- Otto von Bismarck

 

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

-- George Burns

 

Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.

-- Samuel Butler

 

Just buy a box of popcorn⁵ and a Coca-Cola and sit back and watch.

-- James Carville, Clinton advisor, offering advice for Democrats⁷ on the term-limits vote in the House

 

Diplomacy⁸ is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock.

-- Wynn Catlin, also attributed to Will Rogers

 

I still believe in liberalism today as much as I ever did, but, oh, there was a happy time when I believed in liberals...

-- G. K. Chesterton

 

Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.

-- Winston Churchill

 

The inherent vice⁶ of capitalism⁹ is the unequal sharing of blessings¹⁰; the inherent virtue¹¹ of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries¹².

-- Winston Churchill

 

Sir, I would rather be right than be President.

-- Henry Clay, Speech, 1850, referring to the Compromise Measure

 

Nothing can so alienate¹³ a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.

-- Mark B. Cohen

 

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.

-- Clarence Darrow

 

The multitude is always in the wrong.

-- Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon, 1684

 

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

-- Paulo Freire

 

A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.

-- Robert Frost

 

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous¹⁴ and the unpalatable.

-- John Kenneth Galbraith

 

Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true.

-- John Kenneth Galbraith

 

The marriage of Marxism and feminism has been like the marriage of husband and wife depicted¹⁵ in English common law: Marxism and feminism are one, and that one is Marxism.

-- Heidi Hartmann, The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism

 

Tauzin backs term limits -- But he thinks it's a bad idea.

-- Headline, story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Feb 20, 1995

 

We need a president who's fluent in at least one language.

-- Buck¹⁶ Henry

 

What luck for the rulers that men do not think.

-- Adolf Hitler

 

The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination¹⁷ from ambush¹⁸. It will be a slow extinction¹⁹ from apathy²⁰, indifference²¹, and undernourishment.

-- Robert Hutchins, Great Books, 1954

 

Asking an incumbent²² member of Congress to vote for term limits is a bit like asking a chicken to vote for Colonel Sanders.

-- Bob Inglis, 1995

 

All over Washington today, the politicians and the power brokers²³ are happy. In fact, if you listen closely, you can hear the sound of champagne²⁴ corks²⁵ popping.

-- Paul Jacob, Term Limits Executive Director

 

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

-- Thomas Jefferson

 

Do you not know, my son, with what little understanding the world is ruled?

-- Pope Julius III

 

The crime bill passed by the Senate would reinstate the Federal death penalty for certain violent crimes: assassinating²⁶ the President; hijacking²⁷ an airliner²⁸; and murdering a government poultry²⁹ inspector³⁰.

-- Knight³¹ Ridder News Service dispatch

 

Eh! Je suis leur chef, il fallait bien les suivre. (Ah well! I am their leader, I really ought to follow them.)

-- Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin

 

Power corrupts³³. Absolute power is kind of neat.

-- John Lehman, Secretary of the Navy, 1981-1987

 

Based on what you know about him in history books, what do you think Abraham Lincoln would be doing if he were alive today?
1) Writing his memoirs³⁴ of the Civil War.
2) Advising the President.
3) Desperately³⁵ clawing at the inside of his coffin³⁶.

-- David Letterman

 

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

-- Abraham Lincoln

 

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

-- Abraham Lincoln

 

Jimmy Carter as President is like Truman Capote marrying Dolly Parton. The job is just too big for him.

-- Rich Little

 

Politics have no relation to morals.

-- Niccolo Machiavelli

 

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

-- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

 

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

-- Groucho Marx

 

It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember.

-- Eugene McCarthy

 

If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents³⁷, he would promise them missionaries³⁸ for dinner.

-- H. L. Mencken

 

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.

-- H. L. Mencken

 

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

 

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

-- John Stuart Mill

 

My father was a minister. I had to make up for the lack of sin.

-- Milwuakee mayor, on why he became a politician

 

Intelligence has nothing to do with politics.

-- Londo Molari

 

Watching the debate this afternoon it was apparent they loved term limits in the House -- as Brutus loved Caesar.

-- Bill Moyers

 

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.

-- George Jean Nathan

 

We do not have censorship. What we have is a limitation on what newspapers can report.

-- Louis Nel, Deputy Minister of Information, South Africa

 

Oregon Democratic Senate candidate Tom Bruggere, in describing his support for comprehensive health care during a candidates' forum³⁹, said he supported "erection-to-resurrection" coverage⁴⁰. He later amended⁴¹ that to "cradle to grave."

-- News report

 

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

 

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.

-- P. J. O'Rourke

 

Public office is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

-- Boies Penrose, 1931

 

If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war.

-- Pentagon official, on why US military censored⁴² graphic⁴³ footage from the Gulf⁴⁴ War

 

I know I'm not in government anymore. In fact I'm out of work.

-- Ronald Reagan, Former U.S. President, on a speaking tour of Japan, 1989

 

Government is like a baby. An alimentary⁴⁵ canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

-- Ronald Reagan, Saturday Evening Post, 1965

 

A government is the only known vessel⁴⁶ that leaks from the top.

-- James Reston

 

Politics is for people who have a passion for changing life but lack a passion for living it.

-- Tom Robbins

 

What is politics, after all, but the compulsion to preside over property and make other peoples' decisions for them?

-- Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All

 

I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat³!

-- Will Rogers

 

The man with the best job in the country is the Vice President. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, "How's the President?"

-- Will Rogers

 

There ought to be one day - just one - when there is open season on senators.

-- Will Rogers

 

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.

-- Will Rogers

 

The Republicans have a new healthcare proposal: Just say NO to illness!

-- Mark Russell

 

If God had meant us to vote, He would have given us candidates.

-- Seen on a bumper⁴⁷ sticker

 

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.

-- George Bernard Shaw

 

Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

-- George Bernard Shaw

 

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent⁴⁸ many for the appointment by the corrupt³² few.

-- George Bernard Shaw

 

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?

-- Harry⁴⁹ Shearer⁵⁰

 

In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take.

-- Adlai Stevenson

 

The best reason I can think of for not running for President of the United States is that you have to shave twice a day.

-- Adlai Stevenson

 

Hey, you can't fight in here! This is the war room!

-- Dr. Strangelove

 

When you've spent half your political life dealing⁵¹ with humdrum⁵² issues like the environment... it's exciting to have a real crisis on your hands.

-- Margaret Thatcher⁵³, on the Falklands Conflict

 

That government is best which governs least.

-- Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849

 

Wherever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

-- Harry S. Truman

 

The principle of give and take is the principle of diplomacy - give one and take ten.

-- Mark Twain

 

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

-- Oscar Wilde

 

When making public policy decisions about new technologies for the Government, I think one should ask oneself which technologies would best strengthen the hand of a police state. Then, do not allow the Government to deploy⁵⁴ those technologies.

-- Philip Zimmermann

 

The fantasy which serves as a support for the figure of the Stalinist Communist is therefore exactly the same as the fantasy which is at work in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.

-- Slavoj Zizek

 

Democracy is the name we give the people whenever we need them.

-- Marquis de Flers Robert and Arman de Caillavet

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