QUOTES ABOUT POLITICS, GOVERNMENT AND CIVILIZATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Stealing an election is as effective as winning it fairly.

I went to a good school where some of our foremost politicians learned
their three R's - this is Ours, that is Ours, everything is Ours.

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask
any Indian. -Robert Orben

The taxpayer -- that's someone who works for the federal government
but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.
-Ronald Reagan

Never give a person more power than he can use, for use it he will.
-Cotton Mather

Politics, very often, is simply economics pursued by other means.
-Edward J. Nell

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now 
I'm beginning to believe it. -Clarence Darrow

After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say
"I want to see the manager." -William S. Burroughs

Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year 
ago. -Bernard Berenson

What is new in our time is the increased power of the
authorities to enforce their own prejudices.

If We Quit Voting Will They All Go Away? 

Politics consists in the art of taking votes from the poor and money
from the rich under the pretext of protecting each from the other.

If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin pricks that precede
cannon shots. -Napolean Bonaparte

All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to
an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American
Indian. -Pat Paulsen

Foreign aid: The transfer of money from poor people in rich countries
to rich people in poor countries. -Douglas Casey

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the
support of Paul. -George Bernard Shaw

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the
people are right more than half the time. -E. B. White

I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national
emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting. -Ronald Reagan

Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are
fueled by perennially rejuvenated illusions. -Albert Einstein 

The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the 
conservative adopts them.

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being
governed by those who are dumber. -Plato 

A liberal is a person whose interests aren't at stake, at the moment.
-Willis Player

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become
the instruments of tyranny at home. -James Madison

It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must 
never label a necessary evil as good. -Margaret Mead

I'm offended by political jokes. Too often they get elected.
-Henny Youngman

When a diplomat says `yes' he means perhaps; when he says `perhaps' he
means no; when he says `no' he is no diplomat.

Government is too big and important to be left to the politicians.
-Chester Bowles

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies,
private citizens will occasionally kill theirs. -Elbert Hubbard

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being
governed by those who are dumber.

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.
-Milton Friedman




The President of the United States hears a hundred voices telling him
that he is the greatest man in the world. He must listen carefully to
hear the one voice that tells him he's not. -Harry S. Truman

Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power.
The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of
good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well,
but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they
mean to be masters. -Daniel Webster

When Congress balances the budget, we end up budgeting the balance.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government
without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not
hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. -Thomas Jefferson

Diplomat: A man who can convince his wife she would look fat in a fur
coat.

A collective tyrant, spread over the length and breadth of the land,
is no more acceptable than a single tyrant ensconced on his throne.
-Georges Clemenceau

Politics is show business for ugly people. -James Carville

All in favor of losing their rights, please do nothing.

The word 'politics' is used to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in
Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.

If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you will end up with selfish,
ignorant leaders. Garbage in, garbage out! -George Carlin

Politicians are those who deal with the problems which would not exist
if they didn't exist.

When I was young I was told that anyone could be President. I'm
beginning to believe it.

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies,
private individuals will occasionally kill theirs. -Elbert Hubbard

The fate of a nation has often depended on the good or bad digestion
of a prime minister. -Voltaire

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even
where there is no river. -Nikita Khrushchev

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. 
-George Jean Nathan

A President of a democracy is a man who is always ready, willing, and
able to lay down your life for his country.

Politics are usually the executive expression of human immaturity.
-Vera Brittain

It will be a GREAT day when schools get all the money they need and
the Air Force has to hold a bake sale in order to get a stealth
bomber.

You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a
reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating
the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for
independence. -Charles Austin Beard

Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be
changed regularly and for the same reason. 

If people lead, the leaders will follow.

One cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
-Albert Einstein

Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on
mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of
justice and police. -Albert Einstein

One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine with only
interests. -John Stuart Mill

Sure you can trust the government! Just ask an Indian!
   
There are many men whose tongues might govern multitudes if they could
govern their tongues. -George D. Prentice

An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.
-Simon Cameron

Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to
govern but impossible to enslave. -Henry Peter Brougham

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can
change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

No country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep
religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law,
and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution,
nothing more. -Mark Twain

If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.
-Jay Leno

Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies with
chaos. -Will Durant

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every
right that he claims for himself. -Robert Green Ingersoll