Politics Quotes
The list of top contributors is odd: Benito Mussolini has the most entries, then Disraeli, with a Nigerian governor, Bernard Crick and Jean Chrétien behind them. It reflects what Wikiquote editors chose to collect, not a ranking of who said it best.
The better-sourced lines are drier. Edmund Burke, in 1770, dismissed the cant of “Not men, but measures.” Stanisław Jerzy Lec’s Unkempt Thoughts (1957) has the shortest joke on the page, “a Trojan horse race.” Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary (1911) calls politics a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
Three well-known lines are flagged misattributed: “Politics is the art of the possible” (Franklin), a remark about playing your cards face upwards (H. G. Wells), and “politics have no relation to morals” (Machiavelli).
What's going on in politics, sir? Are the Chinese holding on?
It’s easier to be on TV. Politics is much harsher than the small screen.
Art isn’t politics. It is a space that requires total honesty.
I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.
[On the newspapers of the Craw Press:] Their politics are an opiate to prevent folk thinking.
His majesty could not see why the principle was not applicable to politics. He resolved to try it.