Politician Quotes

I shall take all the troubles of the past, all the disappointments, all the headaches, and I shall pack them in a bag and throw them in the East River.

Ideas that are at odds with the inherited collective wisdom of antiquity are always, on their face suspect.

Andrew Thomas (American politician)

The British had a poor record of retreating from colonies. There are more than ten years of transition period before our resumption of sovereignty. Will the British be irresponsible and "mess up" Hong Kong like comrade Deng Xiaoping said? We should be on guard. This is our major consideration for setting up the Joint Liaison Group. Surely, it will be beneficial for both countries, as other things may need to be settled by the two sides.

In a meeting with Xu Jiatun

The present Colonial Secretary has been too clever by half [...] I believe he is a very fine bridge player. It is not considered immoral, or even bad form to outwit one's opponents at bridge. It almost seems to me as if the Colonial Secretary, when he abandoned the sphere of bridge for the sphere of politics, brought his bridge technique with him.

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury

Natural dignity of mind or manners can never be concealed; it ever commands our respect: assumed dignity, or importance, excites our ridicule and contempt.

Joseph R. Bartlett

How could we justify to the rest of the world imposing martial law on our capital?

When the Beijing Party Commission had proposed imposing martial law after the Tiananmen Square protests

He thinks nothing more absurd than the common notion of Instruction, as if Science were to be poured into the Mind, like water into a cistern, that passively waits to receive all that comes.

James Harris (grammarian)

One must not be provoked when someone provokes him.

To be told that mathematics is good training for the mind does not insure either the intelligent or ardent pursuit of this branch of science.

Whether one agrees with the Communist Party or not, one must at least know the truth about it. One must not permit his ideas to be shaped by the hysteria which now passes as a "crusade against Communism."... For example, the canard that every Communist has his pockets lined with "Moscow gold." If that were true, one could be sure that there would scarcely be any room in our party for workers. The capitalists, to whom gold is god of the universe, would crowd them out.

Benjamin J. Davis Jr.

Chicago has been characterized as the most segregated city in the United States, a city they said could never change.

Harold Washington

The first and second laws of thermodynamics are of course known to us as well as the Ten Commandments, and probably obeyed more consistently.

If you think you can - you can !
If you think you can not - you can not !
And either way........you are right !

Geology stands to engineering in the same relation as faith to works.... The success or failure of an undertaking depends largely upon the physical conditions which fall within the province of geology, and the "works" of the engineer should be based on the "faith" of the geologist.

The greatest curse that can befall a free people, is civil war.

Alexander H. Stephens

The double jeopardy of being black and female in a racist and sexist society may well make one less afraid of the sanctions against success. A non-subservient black woman is by definition a transgressive- she is the ultimate outsider.

Mamphela Ramphele

Method is everything in archaeology, my boy. Why, we always deal with our finds in order.

Sir Joseph Scott, 1st Baronet

The commonest error made in relation to poetry is that it consists simply in verse-making. Many confound the casket of meter and rhyme with the jewel of thought which it encloses, and, perhaps, in some instances, after close investigation, they have found the casket empty and turned away with feelings of disappointment and disgust.

Orson F. Whitney

No nation now sets forth to despoil another upon the avowed ground that it desires the spoils.

What is happening and what may happen in the Nagorno-Karabakh and all the occupied lands is our internal affair. No international organization or country can interfere with our internal affair

The fundamental question for the United States is how it can cooperate to help meet the basic needs of the people of the hemisphere despite the philosophical disagreements it may have with the nature of particular regimes. It must seek pragmatic ways to help people without necessarily embracing their governments. It should recognize that diplomatic relations are merely practical conveniences and not measures of moral judgment.

Nelson Rockefeller

We don't know the path yet. But that's because we haven't blazed the trail. And I think you all know that I know a little bit about finding one's way through the dark.

Time after time, on matters great and small, we are still standing on the sidelines, mutely accepting what is decided elsewhere instead of raising our voices and making our own choices. Scotland's much vaunted partnership of Jonah and the whale.

Culture is a more effective weapon than guns for the purpose of domination. For it was scientific, technical and technological culture which produced the guns. The prerequisite of any domination, exploitation and oppression is the denial to the oppressed man or people of his or their human attributes and therefore, in the first instance, cultural activities.

Ahmed Sékou Touré

God created us with an overwhelming desire to soar. Our desire to develop and use every ounce of potential He's placed in us is not egotistical. He designed us to be tremendously productive and "to mount up with wings like eagles," realistically dreaming of what He can do with our potential.