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George Washington Plunkitt Quotes

1842–1924

George Washington Plunkitt (17 November 1842 – November 19, 1924) was a New York State Senator and, as a member of Tammany Hall, a ward boss for the Fifteenth Assembly District.

Politicians

Random George Washington Plunkitt quote

31 quotes

Men ain’t in politics for nothin’. They want to get somethin’ out of it. p. 37

As a matter of policy, if nothing else, why should the Tammany leaders go into such dirty business, when there is so much honest graft lyin’ around when they are in power? p. 6

Some young men think they can learn how to be successful in politics from books, and they cram their heads with all sorts of college rot. They couldn’t make a bigger mistake. p. 7

It’s because a Brooklynite is a natural-born hayseed, and can never become a real New Yorker. p. 41

I ain’t up on sillygisms, but I can give you some arguments that nobody can answer. p. 13

This civil service law is the biggest fraud of the age. It is the curse of the nation. p. 11

Politics is as much a regular business as the grocery or the dry-goods or the drug business. You've got to be trained up to it or you're sure to fail. p. 19

Richard Croker used to say that tellin’ the truth and stickin’ to his friends was the political leader’s stock in trade. p. 35

There’s an honest graft, and I’m an example of how it works. I might sum up the whole thing by sayin’: “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.” p. 3

Big Tim made money out of liquor—sellin’ it to other people. That’s the only way to get good out of liquor. p. 79

Before then when a party won, its workers got everything in sight. That was somethin’ to make a man patriotic. p. 14

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: George Washington Plunkitt (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.