That’s one of the most ridiculous and insulting things that I think I’ve heard in politics. Lynn Swann is the outsider, and Bill Scranton’s the guy who’s been in Harrisburg before, who’s been around the...

Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz — Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.

Military strategy…has become the diplomacy of violence.

Mainly, though, the Democratic Party has become the party of reaction. In reaction to a war that is ill conceived, we appear suspicious of all military action. In reaction to those who proclaim the market...

If it is indeed the business of imagination to make politics distrust itself – reminding it that its principles are not literal facts but constructs of imagination – it is also its business to encourage...

And for once, Donald Rumsfeld, in the news at the time over the Iraq war made sense to me: “As we know,” he said, famously, “there are known knowns-things we know we know. We also...

Might not too much investment in teaching Shelley mean falling behind our economic competitors? But there is no university without humane inquiry, which means that universities and advanced capitalism are fundamentally incompatible. And the political...

Politics divides a nation, instead of bringing its people together.

Therefor I doubt not but, if it had been a thing contrary to any man’s right of dominion, or to the interest of men that have dominion, ‘that the three angles of a triangle should...

You can’t become a billionaire stepping over children sleeping on the street.

The dead should not rule the living.

Freedom isn’t the highest good. Power is. For without power, your freedom can be taken.

Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.

the Bradman class” denoted the highest kind of excellence: it would include Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Newton, Archimedes, and maybe a dozen others. Well, said Hardy, there had only been two additions in his lifetime. One was...

Eating is an agricultural act.

Now, I have always wanted to agree with Lady Bracknell that there is no earthly use for the upper and lower classes unless they set each other a good example. But I shouldn’t pretend that...

When politics and home life have become one and the same, when economic problems have been solved in such a way that individual and collective interests are identical – all constraints having disappeared – it...

Orwell’s short and intense life has for years borne witness to some of those verities of which we were already aware. Parties and churches and states cannot be honest, but individuals can. Real books cannot...

Theatres are curious places, magician’s trick-boxes where the golden memories of dramtic triumphs linger like nostalgic ghosts, and where the unexplainable, the fantastic, the tragic, the comic and the absurd are routine occurences on and...

Political action means taking on responsibility. This cannot happen without power. Power is to serve responsibility.

Unaweza kusaliti nchi kwa sababu za kiitikadi, kisiasa, matatizo ya akili, au pesa. Ukifanya hivyo na ukabainika; utawajibika kwa adhabu ya kifo, au maisha.

For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies...

It seems to be difficult if not impossible for human beings to avoid thinking of government as mystical entity with a nature and a history all its own. It constitutes for them a creature somehow...

No one is more qualified than you are to decide how you live; no one should be able to vote on what you do with your time and your potential unless you invite them to.

He who suffers wins in politics. The martyr does not obtain the victory personally, but his group, his successors, win in the long run.

Wherever there is abuse there is also corruption. Politics, philosophy, theology, science, industry, any field with the potential to affect the well-being of others can be destroyed by abuse and saved by good will.

You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors. You know, eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard.

Those who treat with Norilendra Queen must be accomplished serpent handlers.

To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

I always look like I’m lying. I was born with a politician’s face. You’ll know I’m in love when I have a Vote For Me look in my eyes.

Hardly anybody tells the truth these days. For the truth I have to go to Washington DC, and whatever a politician says, interpolate the opposite.

It may be 9:01 am, and I may have a 9-5 business, but if you are a politician, I’m closed. Come back at 5:01—and bring your own coffin.

If you look at how the federal government spends our money, it’s an insurance conglomerate protected by a large, standing army.

I was quite depressed two weeks ago when I spent an afternoon at Brentano’s Bookshop in New York and was looking at the kind of books most people read. Once you see that you lose...

In Paris and London he had seen nothing to make a return to life worth while; in Washington he saw plenty of reasons for staying dead.

Here one comes upon an all-important English trait: the respect for constituitionalism and legality, the belief in ‘the law’ as something above the state and above the individual, something which is cruel and stupid, of...

My hobbies include rubbing my nipples across a cheese grater, meeting cat ladies on Tinder, and voting for either Democrat or Republican every four years. You could say I am a torture enthusiast.

I want to have five or six wives, and a few dozen sheep, all for my pleasure. I should be a politician.

Citizens are starting not to excuse political candidates who have web sites that do nothing but throw virtual confetti.

There’s nothing special about politicians as people. Now as animals, they’d be extraordinary for their ability to be intelligent enough (barely) to be potty trained.

Business idea: Merge a billiard table with a golf course, and make the pockets as deep as a typical politician’s pants.

Don’t be alarmed by the flashing lights and the sirens you can’t see or hear. Just keep your blindfold on, your earplugs in, and keep driving way over the speed limit. You are in control...

I ordered an extra large handshake to go, but I had no idea it would be so greasy—or that it would leave a stain on my crotch. Ugh, politics!

A politician is a person who trades promises for power, and then trades the people’s trust for personal gain.

Bribery—it’s the way to get ahead. At least in politics.

The raindrops gathered on my windshield like prostitutes at a political convention, and I voted like I always vote—with my windshield wiper.

Bush violated FISA […] because he wanted to violate the law in order to establish the general ‘principle’ that he was not bound by the law, to show that he has the power to break...

The dangerous men were still asleep, their blades sheathed next to their beds. The really dangerous men had been up for hours, and their quills and ledgers were getting hard use.

What happens to people living in a society where everyone in power is lying, stealing, cheating and killing, and in our hearts we all know this, but the consequences of facing all these lies are...

Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?