Quotes About Politics - Some Cynical, Some Hopeful, All On Point
Welcome to our curated collection of quotes on politics. These are about politics in general - not any particular political party. Many are cynical, and that seems to be the prevailing view of politics. Some are much more hopeful. And some just thoughtful. We hope you enjoy pondering them, and if you find them helpful, please share widely.
The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.
Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.
Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.
Sometimes in politics one must duel with skunks, but no one should be fool enough to allow skunks to choose the weapons.
Politics calls for robust debate and criticism, but this should never descend to personal and demeaning slurs.
In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
A politician is a person with whose politics you don't agree; if you agree with him he's a statesman.
You have to believe that it's through politics that societies can lead social and economic and political change.
Politics is a herd mentality. Politicians don't really lead. Politicians reflect what they think is consensus opinion.
It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.
Politics should share one purpose with religion: the steady emancipation of the individual through the education of his passions.
Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces. The men become every year more and more creatures of force, massed about central powerhouses. The conflict is no longer between the men, but between the motors that drive the men, and the men tend to succumb to their own motive forces.
Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Practical politics consists in ignoring facts, but education and politics are two different and often contradictory things.
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Power, in a nutshell, is the ability to get things done, and politics is the ability to decide which things need to be done.
Politics is about the participation and engagement of the wider citizenry -- to miss that point would doom us to irrelevance.
There are no true friends in politics. We are all sharks circling, and waiting, for traces of blood to appear in the water.
Politics means facing up to hard choices and facing down prejudice, short-termism, the easy, tempting court of knee-jerk public reaction.
Politics is much too serious to be taken too seriously; equally, there are many aspects of it so laughable as to be lamentable.
When politics is no longer a mission but a profession, politicians become more self-serving than public servants.
What matters most in politics is personality. It's not issues; it's not image. It's who you are and what you represent.
Politics is not a game for naive thinkers. You may go in as an idealist, but you certainly won't come out as one.
Politics has high and low moments. Sometimes it brings out the better angels of our nature; sometimes baser instincts.
If you lose, you can't lead. If you don't lead, you're irrelevant. Winning is what it's all about in politics.
Of what does politics consist except the making of imperfect decisions, many of them unjust and quite a few of them deadly?
The art of politics consists in knowing precisely when it is necessary to hit an opponent slightly below the belt.
In life and in politics, it's helpful to try to perceive the other person through the most generous lens.
Politics has become unbelievably and unfortunately way too much about how much money is involved rather than what kind of ideas are involved.
A life in politics is for people who know themselves and know where their own line is between loyalty and honesty.
Value your freedom or you will lose it, teaches history. 'Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn.
Politics is tricky; it cuts both ways. Every time you make a choice, it has unintended consequences.
In politics, the reaction to a controversy is very often more enlightening and important than the details of the allegations themselves.
People are getting too far away from the real-world. Politics is just ridiculous, it's totally dysfunctional.

We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put.
Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. It is very nice now when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.
This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.
A political convention is just not a place where you come away with any trace of faith in human nature.
Politics, noun. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen.
It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.
It is a fine game to play -- the game of politics -- and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.
