Politics Quotes – Insights and Reflections on Politics

"Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage."

Henry Louis Mencken

"In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible... Thus, political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness... Political language [is] designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable."

George Orwell

"We have voluntarily agreed to let an invisible government sift the data and high-spot the outstanding issues so that our field of choice shall be narrowed to practical proportions. From our leaders and the media they use to reach the public, we accept the evidence and the demarcation of issues bearing upon public questions; from some ethical teacher, be it a minister, a favorite essayist, or merely prevailing opinion, we accept a standardized code of social conduct to which we conform most of the time."

Edward Bernays

"Once you touch the biographies of human beings, the notion that political beliefs are logically determined collapses like a pricked balloon."

Walter Lippmann

"When philosophers try to be politicians they generally cease to be philosophers."

Walter Lippmann

"For every alleged benefit that the politicians confer upon us, they must necessarily deprive us of something else."

Henry Hazlitt

"The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can pay for the benefit of the other third."

Voltaire

"The State always moves slowly and grudgingly towards any purpose that accrues to society's advantage, but moves rapidly and with alacrity towards one that accrues to its own advantage; nor does it ever move towards social purposes on its own initiative, but only under heavy pressure, while its motion towards anti-social purposes is self-sprung."

Albert Jay Nock

"Democracy is just a filler for textbooks! Do you actually believe that public opinion influences the government?"

Voltaire

"In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another."

Voltaire

"Is politics nothing other than the art of deliberately lying?"

Voltaire

"When politicians say "I'm in politics," it may or may not be possible to trust them, but when they say, "I'm in public service," you know you should flee."

Albert Jay Nock

"Above all, do not give up your moral and political autonomy by accepting in somebody else's terms the illiberal practicality of the bureaucratic ethos or the liberal practicality of the moral scatter. Know that many personal troubles cannot be solved merely as troubles, but must be understood in terms of public issues and in terms of the problems of history making."

Charles Wright Mills

"What do you call it when someone steals someone else's money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else's money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else's money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social Justice."

Thomas Sowell

"Religions are manipulated in order to serve those who govern society and not the other way around."

Gore Vidal

"Democracy is much too important to be left to public opinion."

Walter Lippmann

"The ordinary politician has a very low estimate of human nature. In his daily life he comes into contact chiefly with persons who want to get something or to avoid something. Beyond this circle of seekers after privileges, individuals and organized minorities, he is aware of a large unorganized, indifferent mass of citizens who ask nothing in particular and rarely complain. The politician comes after a while to think that the art of politics is to satisfy the seekers after favors and to mollify the inchoate mass with noble sentiments and patriotic phrases."

Walter Lippmann

"Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest."

Thomas Sowell