Here is another 25 quotes on politics… for a total of 250 (a quarter of the way to our goal of compiling 1,000 bon mots on the subject.)
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The most important political office is that of the private citizen. – Louis Brandeis
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Fire, water, and government know nothing of mercy. – Proverb
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People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote – a very different thing. – Walter H. Judd
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Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds. – John Perry Barlow
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When a machine begins to run without human aid, it is time to scrap it – whether it be a factory or a government. – Alexander Chase
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Treaties are like roses and young girls – they last while they last. – Charles de Gaulle
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The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment. – Robert M. Hutchins
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It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government. – John Gardner
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Washington is a place where politicians don’t know which way is up and taxes don’t know which way is down. – Robert Orben
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Everybody wants to eat at the government’s table, but nobody wants to do the dishes. – Werner Finck
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When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves. – George Pataki
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Morphine and state relief are the same. You go dopey, feel better and are worse off. – Martin H. Fischer
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If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress? – Anonymous
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Democracy is an abuse of statistics. – Jorge Luis Borges
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The mistakes made by Congress wouldn’t be so bad if the next Congress didn’t keep trying to correct them. – Cullen Hightower
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The plague of government is senile delinquency. – Mignon McLaughlin
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In a state-run society the government promises you security. But it’s a false promise predicated on the idea that the opposite of security is risk. Nothing could be further from the truth. The opposite of security is insecurity, and the only way to overcome insecurity is to take risks. The gentle government that promises to hold your hand as you cross the street refuses to let go on the other side. – Theodore Forstmann
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A survey says that American workers work the first three hours every day just to pay their taxes. So that’s why we can’t get anything done in the morning: We’re government workers. – Jay Leno
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The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary. – Wilhelm Reich
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I never would believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden. – Richard Rumbold
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Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us. – P.J. O’Rourke
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To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places. – Wendell Phillips
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The Lord’s Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence, but government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words. – National Review
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Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. – Reinhold Niebuhr
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The People, though we think of a great entity when we use the word, means nothing more than so many millions of individual men. – James Bryce
