The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed – and hence clamorous to be led to safety – by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. H L Mencken
A good politician under democracy is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. H L Mencken
In religion and politics, people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the question at issue, but have taken them at second hand from other non-examiners whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing. Mark Twain
I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s. Mark Twain
No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. Mark Twain
My faith has always been an important part of my politics. Tony Blair
When we blindly accept a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. Anais Nin
The priest persuades humbled people to endure their hard lot; the politician urges them to rebel against it; and the scientist thinks of a method that does away with the hard lot altogether. Max Perutz, Is Science Necessary 1989
In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. Carl Sagan, address CSICOP conference 1987, cited J Poling, ‘Do Science and the Bible Conflict?’
From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’ Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut, cited People magazine 8th April 1974
Well, I don’t think we should go to the moon. I think we maybe should send some politicians up there. Ron Paul
Politics should be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage. Lucille Ball
We can be hindered in our development and our personal growth by political conditions. Outer circumstances can constrain us. Only when we are free to develop our innate abilities can we live as free beings. But we are just as much determined by inner potential and outer opportunities as the Stone Age boy on the Rhine, the lion in Africa, or the apple tree in the garden. Jostein Gaarder, Sophie’s World
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is in itself the highest political end. Lord Acton 1834-1902
One of the charges at the time of course was that in some way I must have known because I had been the chancellor, because I had been the foreign secretary, because I had been the prime minister. And therefore I must have known what was going on, but I didn’t. John Major, response to Scott Inquiry into Arms Sales to Iraq
If the politics isn’t hurting, it isn’t working. John Major, re controlling inflation
The advantage of the internet is that it has taken away the charade of politics. China has heard of democracy and people know about certain concepts they wouldn’t have previously. Marilyn Manson
There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands. Plato
Proximity to power has an unsurprising ability to mutate a politician’s spinal cord into bright yellow jelly. Tariq Ali, The Obama Syndrome
First rule of politics: Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Boardwalk Empire s1e1, HBO 2010
Crime does not pay ... as well as politics. A E Housman
American political opportunities are heavily loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest. Richard Dawkins, lecture An Atheist’s Call to Arms
The flood of money that gushes into politics today is a pollution of democracy. Theodore H White, Time magazine 19th November 1984
Instead of having one name communism, they have two names: Republicans and Democrats: it’s one party ... They’re having a party and you are paying for it. Gerald Celente
Why can't politicians just be honest? Hyde Park on Hudson 2012 starring Bill Murray & Laura Linney & Samuel West & Olivia Colman & Elizabeth Marvel & Olivia Williiams & Elizabeth Wilson & Andrew Havill et al, director Roger Michell, president
Both parties lurched further to the right. Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States IX: Bush and Clinton – American Triumphalism – New World Order, Showtime 2012
[The Right] lie with impunity. Let’s face it. They’re liars. They lied about the reason they took our sons and daughters to war. They spend millions of dollars in campaign ads saying they are for a prescription drug benefit under Medicare while they work to destroy Medicare and replace it with private plans and HMOs. They call their dirty air legislation Clear Skies and their plan to give the timber companies our trees, Healthy Forests. They call their job-killing economic program a jobs program. They say they are for peace when they are for war. Millions of children are left behind under their miserly No Child Left Behind education bill. They tout a child tax credit for working families and then silently drop it in favor of more tax cuts for millionaires. Jan Schakowsky
Mr Speaker, members of the House, I shall be brief as I have rather unfortunately become prime minister right in the middle of my exams. I look forward to fulfilling my duty in a manner which nanny would be proud. Blackadder III: Dish & Dishonesty, Pitt the Younger, BBC 1987
Meet the new Member of Parliament for Dunny-on-the-Wold. Precisely, sir. Our slogan shall be a rotten candidate for a rotten borough. Baldrick, I want you to go back to your kitchen sink, you see, and prepare for government. ibid. Blackadder to Prince, with Baldrick
Pitt the Younger: I intend to put up my own brother as a candidate against you.
Blackadder: Oh and which Pitt would this be? Pitt the toddler? Pitt the embryo? Pitt the glint in the milkman’s eye ibid.
We in the Adder Party are going to fight this campaign on issues not personalities. Because our candidate doesn’t have a personality. ibid.
Reporter: One voter, sixteen thousand four hundred and seventy two votes – a slight anomaly?
Blackadder: Not really, Mr Hanna. You see, Mr Baldrick may look like a monkey that’s been put in a suit and then strategically shaved, but he is a brilliant politician. The number of votes I cast is simply a reflection of how firmly I believe in his policies. ibid.
Disraeli’s opportunism earned him many enemies in parliament. Empires: Queen Victoria’s Empire I: Engines of Change, PBS 2000
A lifelong feud between the two politicians – Disraeli and Gladstone. ibid.
It was seven o’clock when they came for me. Cherie was putting the children to bed and I was upstairs signing another pile of my memoirs. Little realising that a new and final chapter was about to begin. Comic Strip: The Hunt For Tony Blair ***** Channel 4 2011
Look, it’s no big deal OK but I’ve been charged with murder. ibid. Tony to Cherie
Probably the first Labour prime minister ever to be on the run from the law. ibid.
In the end only God and history could judge me. [rain pours on park bench] ibid.