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Quotes about politics

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The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.
Pope Francis1936–2025Said during a gathering of Latin American bishops, as quoted in ‘Option for the Poor’ alive and well in Latin America, National Catholic Reporter (21 May 2007)
- Economics
- Justice
All poets adore explosions, thunderstorms, tornadoes, conflagrations, ruins, scenes of spectacular carnage. The poetic imagination is not at all a desirable quality in a statesman.
W. H. Auden1907–1973The Dyer’s Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
- Poetry
The theories, the dogmas and the scripts stand outside the gates of history. The dominant factor is the aspiration of the people and the ability to seek total identification with it.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto1928–1979Letter to his daughter (1978), p. 15
- History
The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use — of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.
Robert F. Kennedy1925–1968“I Remember, I Believe,” The Pursuit of Justice (1964)
- Power
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.
Thomas Sowellborn 1930Is Reality Optional? (1993), Student Loans
- Economics
The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.
Thomas Sowellborn 1930Big Lies in Politics, 22 May 2012.
- Truth & Lies
I am no politician, and still less can I be said to be a party-man: I have a hatred of tyranny, and a contempt for its tools; and this feeling I have expressed as often and as strongly as I could.
William Hazlitt1778–1830Political Essays (1819), Preface
- Freedom
The Chinese authorities think of artists as prostitutes. And in reality it’s true: in the Communist system artists just represent what the power structure seeks them to represent. It is prostitution.
Ai Weiweiborn 1957Truth to Power, 2008
- Art
To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients, by which the wealth of a nation may be promoted.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804Report on Manufactures (1791)
- Economics
And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents’ “interests,” I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.
Barry Goldwater1909–1998The Conscience of a Conservative (1960), p. 15
- Liberty
When a politician, on a subject implicating science — hard science, economic science, social science — says, ‘The debate is over,’ you may be sure of two things. It’s that the debate is raging and he’s losing it.
George Willborn 1941Discussion, Fox News Sunday, February 16, 2014
- Debate
- Science
And our little girl — Tricia, the 6-year old — named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it.
Richard Nixon1913–1994Checkers speech (1952)
- Animals
The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.
Albert Camus1913–1960“Homage to an Exile”, speech honoring Eduardo Santos (7 December 1955); in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death (1960)
- Power
I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy.
George W. Bushborn 1946On Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, in a press conference with Putin (16 June 2001)
Dictatorships foster oppression, dictatorships foster servitude, dictatorships foster cruelty; more abominable is the fact that they foster idiocy.
Jorge Luis Borges1899–1986Statement to the Argentine Society of Letters (c.1946)
- Government