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Quotes about politics

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The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882The Conservative (1841)
- Change
We must have faith in the masses and we must have faith in the Party. These are two cardinal principles. If we doubt these principles, we shall accomplish nothing.
Mao Zedong1893–1976On the Question of Agricultural Co-Operation (July 31, 1955)
What is called politics is comparatively something so superficial and inhuman, that, practically, I have never fairly recognized that it concerns me at all.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Life Without Principle (1863), p. 494
There are worse things than losing an election; the worst thing is to lose one’s convictions and not tell the people the truth.
Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965Responding to a claim that backing a nuclear test ban would cost him votes; as quoted in As We Knew Adlai: The Stevenson Story by Twenty-two Friends (1966), ed. Edward P. Doyle, p. 185
- Truth & Lies
Our country is more important than the politics of the moment. Let the officials elected by the people fulfill their duties and represent our voices in peace and safety.
George W. Bushborn 1946Comments on the storming of US Capitol (2021)
- Democracy
For fear of the newspapers politicians are dull, and at last they are too dull even for the newspapers.
G. K. Chesterton1874–1936All Things Considered (1908)
- Journalism
Money and credit are as much human contrivances as bicycles, and as liable to expansion and modification as any other sort of prevalent but imperfect machine.
H. G. Wells1866–1946Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought (1901), The Faith, Morals, and Public Policy of The New Republic, pp. 340–343
- Economics
- Money
The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961Notes on the Next War (1935)
- Economics
- War & Peace
By “nationalism” I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled “good” or “bad.”
George Orwell1903–1950Notes on Nationalism (1945)
- Patriotism
I consider that willingness to criticize Russia and Stalin is the test of intellectual honesty.
George Orwell1903–1950Letter to John Middleton Murry (5 August 1944), published in The Collected Essays, Journalism, & Letters, George Orwell: As I Please, 1943-1945 (2000), edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus
- Truth & Lies
Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism.
George Orwell1903–1950Notes on Nationalism (1945)
- Patriotism
Fanaticism turns into a means of salvation, enthusiasm into epileptic ecstasy, politics becomes an opiate for the masses, a proletarian eschatology; and reason veils her face.
Thomas Mann1875–1955On German fascism, in “An Appeal to Reason” [“Deutsche Ansprache. Ein Appell an die Vernunft”] in Berliner Tageblatt (18 October 1930); as translated by Helen T. Lowe-Porter in Order of the Day, Political Essays and Speeches of Two Decades (1942) …
Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul.
Margaret Thatcher1925–2013Interview for The Sunday Times (1 May 1981)
- Economics
I went to the Democratic Convention as a journalist, and returned a raving beast. For me, that week in Chicago was far worse than the worst bad acid trip I’d even heard rumors about.
Hunter S. Thompson1937–2005Comment on the protest activity at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, as quoted in “The Doctor Is In” by Curtis Wilkie, in The Boston Globe Magazine (7 February 1988), p. 16
If you’re born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you’re born in sin. But if you’re born in socialism, you’re not born in sin.
Jim Jones1931–1978“The Letter Killeth.” Original material reprint. Department of Religious Studies. San Diego State
- America