Politics

British electors will never vote for a man who doesn't wear a hat.
~ William Maxwell Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook)

The trouble in modern democracy is that men do not approach to leadership until they have lost the desire to lead anyone.
~ William Henry (W.H.) Beveridge, in The Observer, London (15 April 1934). Sayings of the Week

Not only will we survive [sanctions], we will emerge stronger on the other side.
~ Pieter Willem (P.W.) Botha, in The New York Times (28 September 1986).

I believe we need a new kind of leadership, a leadership that puts the people front and center, not the president.
~ Bill Bradley

That reminds me of the kind of politician who would chop down a tree, then stand on the stump and give a speech about conservation.
~ Bill Bradley

I never met a politician who didn't want to be a guitar player in a rock band. I've got the opportunity to say what I believe in.
~ Billy Bragg, CNN TV (17 December 2002). The political music of Billy Bragg

That's what I'm about -- getting engaged. Too many people don't wade in the mud with the politicians.
~ Billy Bragg, CNN TV (17 December 2002). The political music of Billy Bragg

[A] person who allows others on all occasions to think for him; who, as far as politics is concerned, has no principle or rule of action, save that of slavish adherence and blind obedience to the dictation of the leader of his party.
~ William Thomas Brande, A Dictionary of Science, Literature, & Art (1842).

[T]he worst effect of party is its tendency to generate narrow, false, and illiberal prejudices, by teaching the adherents of one party to regard those that belong to an opposing party as unworthy of confidence.
~ William Thomas Brande, A Dictionary of Science, Literature, & Art (1842).

Politics are about power; we cannot evade that truth or its consequences. We dream of a better world but it is in Utopia -- that is, nowhere.
~ Denis William (D.W.) Brogan

In politics, a lie unanswered becomes truth within 24 hours.
~ Willie Brown

I have a strong personal desire to see the next generation of African Americans take a lead role in the world of politics, and I want to see them succeed.
~ Willie L. Brown, Jr., The San Francisco Examiner (21 November 2002). Showing them the ropes

It's been fun all eight of those years ... except for seven years, six months and 42 days.
~ Willie L. Brown, Jr., KGO-TV (6 January 2004). Willie Brown Reflects On His Legacy

[O]ur differences are largely superficial differences, and ... our agreements are fundamental agreements.
~ William Jennings Bryan, Address at the Constitutional Convention of Illinois, House of Representatives, Springfield IL (24 March 1920).

It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.
~ William F. Buckley, Jr., in National Review (19 November 1955). Publishers Statement

Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples' money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people's freedom and security.
~ William F. Buckley, Jr.

One must bear in mind that the expansion of federal activity is a form of eating for politicians.
~ William F. Buckley, Jr.

Though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view.
~ William F. Buckley, Jr., Up from Liberalism (1959)

Knowing no right, save power's grim right-of-way;
No nobleness, save life's ignoble praise;
No future, save this sordid day to day;
He is the curse of these material days.
~ William Wilfred Campbell, The Poems of Wilfred Campbell (1905). The Politician

I've never met a politican who didn't like free publicity.
~ William Cologie

But the age of virtuous politics is past,
And we are deep in that of cold pretence.
Patriots are grown too shrewd to be sincere,
And we too wise to trust them.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book V. The Winter Morning Walk

Democracy without education means hypocrisy without limitation; it means the degradation of statesmanship into politics; it means the expensive maintenance, in addition to the real ruling class, of a large parasitic class of politicians whose function it is to serve the rulers and deceive the ruled; it has made all public life a server of corruption which poisons the breath of heaven.
~ William James "Will" Durant, The Mansions of Philosophy: A Survey Of Human Life And Destiny (1929).

Voters want a fraud they can believe in.
~ Will Durst

Hell, I never vote for anybody. I always vote against.
~ W.C. Fields, quoted in W.C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes (1949).

Repudiate the repudiators.
~ William Pitt Fessenden, Speech (1868).

[I support] term limits for career politicians and the death penalty for career politicians.
~ Bill Frist, (Political advertisement repeated on TV throughout his successful campaign for the U.S. senate)

The exchange program is the thing that reconciles me to all the difficulties of political life.
~ J. William Fulbright

Some things that exist in the body politic which are wrong cannot be abolished offhand; we have to move slowly, so that all we can do under such conditions which society has created is to lessen them by degrees, little by little, here a little and there a little, until we gradually climb down to the level we want to reach, and do no injury to anybody.
~ William Jay Gaynor, Speech at the Seventy-second Annual Meeting of the New York State Agricultural Society (1912). The Cost of Living Problem

I can only say that politics, like misery, 'bring a man acquainted with strange bedfellows.'
~ William Gifford, The Maeviad (1794).

I always voted at my party's call,
And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, H.M.S. Pinafore (1878 opera).

Politics we bar,
They are not our bent:
On the whole we are
Not intelligent.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert

When in that House MPs divide,
If they've a brain and cerebellum, too,
They've got to leave that brain outside,
And vote just as their leaders tell 'em to.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, Iolanthe (1882 opera). Private Willis

Out of the range of practical politics.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, Speech at Dalkeith (26 November 1879)

I can hardly help wondering at my own folly in thinking it worth while to leave my books and garden, even for one day's attendance in the House of Commons.
~ William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Letter To The Marquis Of Buckingham (26 Ocotber 1803).

I am not convinced the Labor Party could not win under my leadership. I believe a drover's dog could lead the Labor Party to victory the way the country is.
~ Bill Hayden, in Hayden (1989).

There is no zone of twilight in politics or public affairs. Right is right, wrong is wrong, and the same strict standard of morals, equity and justice must obtain as in any private business or professional matter.
~ William Harrison ("Will H.") Hays, in The New York Times Magazine (28 December 1919).

A politician will do anything to keep his job -- even become a patriot.
~ William Randolph Hearst, Editorial (1933).

Oh well, it's right that the members of these old families should stick together nowadays. After all, their ancestors in those days were probably chained together.
~ Billy Hughes (on a rival candidate standing for election in North Sydney, 1931)

[T]here is hardly a burning question in politics that is not answered differently by the intellect and by the emotions.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, Truth and Falsehood in Religion; Six Lectures Delivered at Cambridge to Undergraduates in the Lent Term (1906). VI. Problems and Tasks

We cannot encourage a process that has a political saliva test administered by candidates.
~ William Kovach

Oh, God. ... It's ludicrous. He should remember it's the party of Lincoln.
~ William Kristol, quoted in The Washington Post (7 December 2002). Lott Decried For Part Of Salute to Thurmond

Factions amongst great Men, they are like Foxes; when their Heads are divided, they carry Fire in their Tails; and all the Country about them goes to Wreck for it.
~ William Livingston, The Independent Reflector (22 February 1753). Of Party Divisions

Like you're in the showroom, about to either buy that car or walk out, and they're the salesman, saying "What do I have to say to get you in this car?"
~ Bill Maher (on political candidates), in Entertainment Weekly (20 September 1996). Special Coverage: Maher's Attacks

What Democratic congressmen do to their women staffers, Republican congressmen do to the country.
~ Bill Maher

A man may be possessed of a disinterested desire to serve his country, he may have wisdom and prudence, courage and knowledge of affairs, he will never achieve a political position in which he can exercise his powers unless he has also the gift of the gab.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, from A Writer's Notebook (1949). 1941 entry

[I]t's very unfair to expect a politician to live in private up to the statements he makes in public.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Circle, Act I (1921).

What does democracy come down to? The persuasive power of slogans invented by wily, self-seeking politicians.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Christmas Holiday (1939).

This has got nothing to do with common sense, this is about politics.
~ Bill McGrath, Annual General Meeting of the Ballarat Arms and Militaria Collectors Society Inc. (August 1996).

There are no victimless crimes in politics. The price of corruption is passed on to you.
~ Bill Moyers, Moyers on Democracy (2008). 16. Saving Democracy (written in February 2006)

We see more and more of our Presidents and know less and less about what they do.
~ Bill Moyers

A society emphasizing social rituals and manners requires a kind of reverence for words to adequately express sentiment and feeling. The dregs of this rhetoric remain the stock in trade of the grass roots politicians.
~ William Van O'Connor, in A Southern Vanguard: The John Peale Bishop Memorial Volume (1947). Robert Penn Warren, 'Provincial Poet'

A liberal is a person who interests aren't at stake, at the moment.
~ Willis Player

A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.
~ William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), in Everybody's Magazine (August 1906). A Ruler of Men

He is racist, he's homophobic, he's xenophobic and he's a sexist. He's the perfect Republican candidate.
~ Bill Press

Here is one of the first rules of politics: It's not enough that I do well; I must also destroy my enemy.
~ Bill Press, Tribune Media Services (18 October 2001). Bill Press: Don't blame it on Bill Clinton

The biggest danger for a politician is to shake hands with a man who is physically stronger, has been drinking and is voting for the other guy.
~ William Proxmire, in The New York Herald Tribune (16 February 1964).

A Congressman is never any better than his roads, and sometimes worse.
~ Will Rogers, in The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949).

A politician is not as narrow-minded as he forces himself to be.
~ Will Rogers

Be a politician; no training necessary.
~ Will Rogers

Both political parties have their good times and bad times, only they have them at different times.
~ Will Rogers

Democrats never agree on anything, that's why they're Democrats. If they agreed with each other, they would be Republicans.
~ Will Rogers

Elections ... are like mosquitoes, you can't very well fight 'em off without cussing 'em.
~ Will Rogers

I belong to no organized party -- I am a Democrat.
~ Will Rogers, Attributed

I can remember way back when a liberal was one who was generous with his money.
~ Will Rogers

I tell you Folks, all politics is apple sauce.
~ Will Rogers, The Illiterate Digest (1924). Breaking into the Writing Game

If all politicians fished instead of spoke publicly, we would be at peace with the world.
~ Will Rogers

If they wasn't in congress, why, they would be doing something else against us that might be even worse.
~ Will Rogers

If you ever injected truth into politics, you would have no politics.
~ Will Rogers

In Europe public men do resign. But here it's a lost art. You have to impeach 'em.
~ Will Rogers

In Washington, one man could do what ten of them do. Things kinder run themselves, anyhow.
~ Will Rogers

It's not what you pay a man, but what he costs you that counts.
~ Will Rogers, quoted in Criswell Freeman The Wisdom of the West (1997).

Many a politician wishes there was a law to burn old records.
~ Will Rogers

More men have been elected between Sundown and Sunup than ever were elected between Sunup and Sundown.
~ Will Rogers

No party is as bad as its leaders.
~ Will Rogers

Politics ain't worrying this country one-tenth as much as where to find a parking space.
~ Will Rogers

Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with.
~ Will Rogers

Politics is the best show in America. I love animals and I love politicians and I love to watch both of 'em play either back home in their native state or after they have been captured and sent to the zoo or to Washington.
~ Will Rogers

Politicians are dumb, but they can count to 50% plus 1.
~ Will Rogers

Senators are a never-ending source of amusement, amazement, and discouragement.
~ Will Rogers

The best thing about this group of candidates that only one of them can win.
~ Will Rogers

The Democrats and Republicans are equally corrupt -- it's only in the amount where the Republicans excel.
~ Will Rogers

The Democrats are going to change the name of the Hoover Dam. That is the silliest thing I ever heard of in politics ... Lord if they feel that way about it, I don't see why they don't just reverse the two words.
~ Will Rogers

The difference between a Republican and a Democrat is the Democrat is a cannibal -- they have to live off each other--while the Republicans, why, they live off the Democrats.
~ Will Rogers, in Bryan Sterling (ed., 1979). Best of Will Rogers, Chapter 4

The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that's out always looks the best.
~ Will Rogers, The Illiterate Digest (1924). Breaking into the Writing Game

There is good news from Washington today. Congress is deadlocked and can't act.
~ Will Rogers

There is something about a Republican that you can only stand him for so long; and on the other hand, there is something about a Democrat that you can't stand him quite that long.
~ Will Rogers

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

There's no way in the world you're going to make a political party respectable unless you keep it out of office.
~ Will Rogers

They are each good when they are out, and each bad when they are in.
~ Will Rogers

We always want the best man to win an election. Unfortunately, he never runs.
~ Will Rogers

We can make this thing into a Party, instead of a Memory.
~ Will Rogers (of the Democratic party), in The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949). Letter to Al Smith (19 January 1929)

We elect our Presidents, be they Republican or Democrat, then start daring 'em to make good.
~ Will Rogers

When I was a kid I was told anyone could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it.
~ Will Rogers

When they do nothing, they don't hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous.
~ Will Rogers

[W]hile the Reublicans are smart enough to make money, the Democrats are smart enough to get in office every two or three times a century and take it away from 'em.
~ Will Rogers, Radio talk (1934).

You got to be an optimist to be a Democrat, and you've got to be a humorist to stay one.
~ Will Rogers

A palm-pounding pack of preening pols.
~ William L. Safire (on congressmen).

Decide on some imperfect Somebody and you will win, because the truest truism in politics is: You can't beat Somebody with Nobody.
~ William L. Safire

I want my questions answered by an alert and experienced politician, prepared to be grilled and quoted -- not my hand held by an old smoothie.
~ William L. Safire, in The New York Times (16 August 1984).

Liberals are variously described as limousine, double-domed, screaming, knee-jerk, professional and "bleeding heart."
~ William L. Safire, The New Language of Politics (1968).

To "know your place" is a good idea in politics. That is not to say "stay in your place" or "hang on to your place," because ambition or boredom may dictate upward or downward mobility, but a sense of place -- a feel for one's own position ...
~ William L. Safire

Wait a minute! I'm not interested in the agriculture. I want the military stuff.
~ Senator William Scott

A party with one idea; but that is a noble idea ... the idea of equality -- the equality of all men before human tribunals and human laws.
~ William Henry Seward, (on Republicans), in The New Webster's Dictionary of Quotations and Famous Phrases (1987).

A politician, ... one that would circumvent God.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Experience suggests that the first rule of politics is never to say never. The ingenious human capacity for manoeuvre and compromise may make acceptable tomorrow what seems outrageous or impossible today.
~ William V. Shannon

If nominated I will not run. If elected I will not serve.
~ William Tecumseh Sherman

Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote.
~ William E. Simon

Republicans raise dahlias, Dalmatians, and eyebrows. Democrats raise Airedales, kids and taxes.
~ Will Stanton, in Ladies' Home Journal (1962). How to Tell a Democrat from a Republican

Republicans sleep in twin beds -- some even in separate rooms. That is why there are more Democrats.
~ Will Stanton, in Ladies' Home Journal (1962). How to Tell a Democrat from a Republican

Republicans study the financial pages of the newspaper. Democrats put them in the bottom of the bird cage.
~ Will Stanton, in Ladies' Home Journal (1962). How to Tell a Democrat from a Republican

Our elections are free, it's in the results where we eventually pay.
~ Bill Stern

The test of your ideas on how good they are is not how fervently you hold them, but whether or not other people support putting you in office to advance those ideas.
~ Bill Thomas, The Associated Press (26 May 2003). Congressman Leads Fight for Bush Tax Cut

As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?
~ William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, (1871).

I don't care who does the electing as long as I get to do the nominating.
~ William Marcy "Boss" Tweed

When I want to buy up any politicians, I always find the anti-monopolists the most purchasable. They don't come so high.
~ William Henry Vanderbilt, in Chicago Daily News (9 October 1882).

A statesman is any politician it's considered safe to name a school after.
~ William E. "Bill" Vaughan, Column in The Kansas City Star. Starbeams

The Vice Presidency is sort of like the last cookie on the plate. Everybody insists he won't take it, but somebody always does.
~ William E. "Bill" Vaughan

Certainly never did like the idea that he was a segregationist, but there was nothing I could do about it. That was his life.
~ Essie Mae Washington-Williams (of her father's segregationist politics), Press conference at the Adam's Mark hotel, Columbia, SC (17 December 2003).

As the years have gone by it's gone cold. A certain kind of pessimism has crept in about whether politics can solve problems.
~ Bill Weaver

[A] businessman's candidate, hovering around the status quo like a sick kitten around a hot brick.
~ William Allen White (of presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes, 1916).

I have the thermometer in my mouth and I am listening to it all the time.
~ William Whitelaw (on party morale in the election campaign of October 1974)

The Labour Party is going about the country stirring up apathy.
~ William Whitelaw, (1970)

If any country were indeed filled with men, each thus diligently discharging the duties of his own station without breaking in upon the rights of others, but on the contrary endeavoring, so far as he might be able, to forward their views and promote their happiness, all would be active and harmonious in the goodly frame of human society.
~ William Wilberforce

When we tell about our cause,
Politicians only smile;
While they mould and make our laws,
What care they for rank or file?
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Drops of Water (1872). What We Want

A politician's words reveal less about what he thinks about his subject than what he thinks about his audience.
~ George F. Will

All politics takes place on a slippery slope. The most important four words in politics are "up to a point."
~ George F. Will, Statecraft as Soulcraft: What Government Does (1983).

American politics as you know ... is very often a matter of capture the flag. The party that loses the flag, as the Democratic party did basically from 1972 through the Iran hostage crisis, is in trouble.
~ George F. Will, MSNBC (fall 2002). Hardball with Chris Matthews

Being elected to Congress is regarded as being sent on a looting raid for one's friends.
~ George F. Will, in Newsweek magazine

In the lexicon of the political class, the word "sacrifice" means that the citizens are supposed to mail even more of their income to Washington so that the political class will not have to sacrifice the pleasure of spending it.
~ George F. Will

Politicians employ speech writers as ventriloquists.
~ George F. Will

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

Voters don't decide issues, they decide who will decide issues.
~ George F. Will, in Newsweek magazine (8 March 1976).

When you look at the work I've done, no one can outrun us, no one can outgun us. That's why we're gonna win.
~ Anthony Williams, WJLA-TV (15 March 2002). Williams Predicts Easy Re-Election

In his farewell address, George Washington warned the people about political parties. Now we see how both Democrats and Republicans have conspired to reduce democratic participation. If this is the best the Democrats and Republicans have to offer, it's time to look elsewhere. ... Politics should be the prism for our most noble intentions.
~ Marianne Williamson, Detroit Free Press (13 February 1999). No outrage? Fine, says one worthy woman

Politicians make good company for a while just as children do -- their self-enjoyment is contagious. But they soon exhaust their favourite subjects -- themselves.
~ George Wills

But Nothing, why does Something still permit
That sacred monarchs should at council sit
With persons highly thought at best for nothing fit?
~ John Wilmot, 2nd Earl Of Rochester, Upon Nothing (1680).

The fastest way for a politician to become an elder statesman is to lose an election.
~ Earl Wilson

Political ideology can corrupt the mind, and science.
~ Edward Osborne (E.O.) Wilson, in The Scientist magazine, Volume 18, Issue 1 (Interview; 19 January 2004). First Person | E.O. Wilson

A week is a long time in politics.
~ Harold Wilson, in Sayings of the Century (1984, probably first said at the time of the 1964 sterling crisis)

Hence the practised performances of latter-day politicians in the game of musical daggers; never be left holding the dagger when the music stops.
~ Harold Wilson

[Labour] is the natural party of government.
~ Harold Wilson, (in 1965), in The Changing Anatomy of Britain (1982).

The labour party is like a stage-coach. If you rattle along at great speed everybody inside is too exhilarated or too seasick to cause any trouble. But if you stop everybody gets out and argues about where to go next.
~ Harold Wilson, quoted in Harold Wilson: The Authentic Portrait (1964).

I believe if we introduced the Lord's Prayer here, senators would propose a large number of amendments to it.
~ Henry Wilson

There aren't any liberals left in New York. They've all been mugged by now.
~ James Q. Wilson, in The Public Interest (1985). The Rediscovery of Character: Private Virtue and Public Policy

It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea. In an evolving universe, who stands still moves backwards.
~ Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminati Papers (1979).

Our worst nightmare as Libertarians is that we might have caused them [the government] to spend more money and hire more employees to monitor the public comment.
~ Bill Winter

The man and the hour have met. Prosperity, honor, and victory await his administration.
~ William Lowndes Yancey, (introducing Jefferson Davis, president-elect of the Confederacy, in Montgomery, Alabama, February 16, 1861)