Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. John Kenneth Galbraith
Politics is for people who have a passion for changing life but lack a passion for living it. Tom Robbins
Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. Henry Brooks Adams
The art of politics consists in knowing precisely when it is necessary to hit an opponent slightly below the belt. Konrad Adenauer
You will find in politics that you are much exposed to the attribution of false motive. Never complain and never explain. Stanley Baldwin
A week is a long time in politics. Harold Wilson
Practical politics consists in ignoring facts. Henry Brooks Adams
The world of politics is always twenty years behind the world of thought. John Jay Chapman
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. John Adams
No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of freedom versus tyranny. Hannah Arendt
Politics is an act of faith; you have to show some kind of confidence in the intellectual and moral capacity of the public. George McGovern
The essential ingredient of politics is timing. Pierre Trudeau
In politics, strangely enough, the best way to play your cards is to lay them face upwards on the table. H G Wells
Politics is a blood sport. Aneurin Bevan
The first requirement of politics is not intellect or stamina but patience. Politics is a very long run game and the tortoise will usually beat the hare. John Major
Politics offers yesterday’s answers to today’s problems. Marshall McLuhan
In politics, every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it. Donald Rumsfeld
There seem to me to be very few facts, at least ascertainable facts, in politics. Robert Peel
Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion. Richard M Nixon
In politics, it seems, retreat is honourable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons. Mary McCarthy
I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep. George Borrow
Politics begin where the masses are, not where there are thousands, but where there are millions, that is where serious politics begin. Lenin
Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed. Mao Zedong
Turn on to politics, or politics will turn on you. Ralph Nader
Beware the politically obsessed. They are often bright and interesting, but they have something missing in their natures; there is a hole, an empty place, and they use politics to fill it up. It leaves them somehow misshapen. Peggy Noonan
Men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married. C Northcote Parkinson
…the art of politics is to be ahead of your time – about six months will do it. Any more than that, and people forget you were there. Gloria Steinem
I have never found, in a long experience of politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance. Harold Macmillan
Politics are usually the executive expression of human immaturity. Vera Brittain
All politics is local. Thomas P ‘Tip’ O’Neill
Politics is nothing but organised opinion. Benjamin Disraeli
A man plunges into politics to make his fortune, and only cares that the world should last his days. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with. Will Rogers
Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education. Henry Brooks Adams
Man is a political animal. Aristotle.
I learned a long time ago in politics, never say never. Gerald R Ford
There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. Lord Acton
In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams
Political thought, in France, is retrospective or Utopian. Raymond Aron
A political career brings out the basest qualities in human nature. James Bryce
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
In politics if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman. Margaret Thatcher
No wonder that, when a political career is so precarious, men of worth and capacity hesitate to embrace it. They cannot afford to be thrown out of their life’s course by a mere accident. James Bryce
In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in failure. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In argument, truth always prevails finally; in politics, falsehood always. Walter Savage Landor
Only very intelligent people don’t wish they were in politics, and I’m dumb enough to want to be in there. Orson Welles
In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at. Christian Nestell Bovee
The political arena leaves one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue. Emma Goldman
There are no true friends in politics. We are all sharks circling, and waiting, for traces of blood to appear in the water. Alan Clark