“We hang petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”
Aesop, Greek slave and fable author.
“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”
Plato, ancient Greek philosopher.
“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.”
Nikita Khrushchev, Russian Soviet politician.
“When I was a boy I was told that anyone could become President; I’m beginning to believe it.”
Quoted in ‘Clarence Darrow for the Defense’ by Irving Stone.
“Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.”
John Quinton, American actor/writer.
“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.”
Oscar Ameringer, ‘the Mark Twain of American Socialism.
“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”
George Orwell, English author.
“I offered my opponents a deal: if they stop telling lies about me, I will stop telling the truth about them.”
Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952.
“A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.”
Texas Guinan, 19th century American businessman.
“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 Hemingway, American author and war correspondent.
“I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.”
Charles de Gaulle, French general and politician.
“Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.”
Doug Larson, English middle distance runner who won gold medals at the 1924 Olympics.
“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.”
Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England, considered by many the greatest statesman of the 20th century.
“What happens if a politician drowns in a river? “
“That is pollution.”
“What happens if all of them drown?”
“That is a solution.”
Anonymous misanthrope.
Thanks due, from Aesop to anonymous.