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Before we get too depressed about the state of our politics, let's remember our history. The great debates of the past, all stirred great passions. They all made somebody angry, and at least once led to a terrible war. What is amazing, is that despite all the conflict, our experiment in democracy has worked better than any form of government on earth.

Barack Obama (1961 - ), University of Michigan Commencement, 2010

If we choose only to expose ourselves to opinions and viewpoints that are in line to our own, we become more polarized, more set in our own ways. It will only reinforce and deepen the political divides in our country. But if we choose to actively seek out information that challenges our assumptions and beliefs, perhaps we can begin to understand where the people who disagree with us are coming from.

Barack Obama (1961 - ), University of Michigan Commencement, 2010

Politics has never been for the thin-skinned or the faint of heart, and if you enter the arena , you should expect to get roughed up. Moreover, Democracy in a nation of more than 300 million people is inherently difficult.

Barack Obama (1961 - ), University of Michigan Commencement, 2010

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Charles De Gaulle (1890 - 1970)

Politics is made up largely of irrelevancies.

Dalton Camp

Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969),

Address recorded for the Republican Lincoln Day dinners, January 28, 1964

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.

Ernest Benn

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important.

Eugene McCarthy (1916 - 2005)

When the political columnists say 'Every thinking man' they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to 'Every intelligent voter' they mean everybody who is going to vote for them.

Franklin P. Adams (1881 - 1960), Nods and Becks (1944)

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956), Women As Outlaws

Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.

Henry Adams (1838 - 1918), The Education of Henry Adams, 1906

The problem with political jokes is they get elected.

Henry Cate VII

Most people assume the fights are going to be the left versus the right, but it always is the reasonable versus the jerks.

Jimmy Wales, Keynote Speech, SXSW 2006

The United States Congress, like a lot of rich people, lives in two houses.

John Green, Vlogbrothers, Why Does Congress Suck?, 01-01-13

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006)

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006)

The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.

Larry Hardiman

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

Lester B. Pearson (1897 - 1972)

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read "President Can't Swim".

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908 - 1973)

Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.

Mao Tse-Tung (1893 - 1976)

Politics has less to do with where you live than where your heart is.

Margaret Cho, weblog, 01-18-04

Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.

Mark B. Cohen

Politics is the art of the possible.

Otto Von Bismarck (1815 - 1898), remark, Aug. 11, 1867

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

Paul Valery (1871 - 1945), Tel Quel 2 (1943)

In politics you must always keep running with the pack. The moment that you falter and they sense that you are injured, the rest will turn on you like wolves.

R. A. Butler (1902 - 1982)

Politics is largely a matter of heart.

R. A. Butler (1902 - 1982)

The whole art of politics consists in directing rationally the irrationalities of men.

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 - 1971)

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004)

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004)

The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919), Remarks to Harvard and Yale undergraduates invited to Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, Long Island, June 1901

Politics is applesauce.

Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)

The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that's out always looks the best.

Will Rogers (1879 - 1935), Illiterate Digest (1924), "Breaking into the Writing Game"

This page was last updated: July 7, 2013

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