Politician Quotes

Loopholes are not always of a fixed dimension. They tend to enlarge as the numbers that pass through wear them away.

Harold Lever, Baron Lever of Manchester

When General Glascock of Georgia was asked, upon taking his seat in Congress, if he would like to be introduced to Clay:

No, sir! I am his adversary, and choose not to subject myself to his fascination.

Thomas Glascock

Taipei is not only the nation's capital, but also the engine of its economy. Yet, in the past few years the city's economy has shrunk and has been surpassed by New Taipei City.

The nearest approach to immortality on earth is a government bureau.

James F. Byrnes

No nostalgia runs deeper than that for something one has never known and now cannot obtain.

[China] should make foreign trade a channel for making adjustments in the home market so that it is improved. Light industry products and goods needed by the market should be imported.

All human beings are Actors (they act!) and Spectators (they observe!).

Rest content, and give heed to one that hath sorrowed in the bright lustre of a court, and gone heavily even on the best-seeming fair ground…I know it bringeth little comfort on earth; and he is, I reckon, no wise man that looketh this way to Heaven.

Sir Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury

The whole world is in revolt. Soon there will be only five Kings left—the King of England, the King of Spades, the King of Clubs, the King of Hearts and the King of Diamonds.

Of Adolf Hitler:

I, and many others who had interviews with him, were at first impressed by his sincerity, and later realized that he was sincere only in his belief that he was destined to rule the world.

Vernon Bartlett

If someone is being rude to a black person on the train, it is your job to challenge that person even if you do get punched in the face. We must always challenge behavior and speech which is othering certain groups.

Molly Scott Cato

Generosity is part of my character, and I therefore hasten to assure this Government that I will never make an allegation of dishonesty against it wherever a simple explanation of stupidity will suffice.

Leslie Lever, Baron Lever

I am not willing to risk the lives of German soldiers for countries whose names we cannot spell properly.

Mysterious power, whence hope ethereal springs!
Sweet heavenly relic of eternal things!
Inspiring oft deep thoughts of things divine:
The past, the present, and the future time.
Thy reminiscences transport the soul
To memory's Paradise - its future goal.

Parley P. Pratt

Being English means, to me, tea on vicarage lawns, roses in a summer twilight, people keeping themselves to themselves, well-fed cats purring on hearthrugs, the bottom right-hand column of the 'Times' correspondence column.

The truth is the United States has to this point never recognized that Taiwan is part of China.

Even if he is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't all have Brandeises, Cardozos and Frankfurters and stuff like that there.

The inferior complex is now extended to all Europe, save Nordics.

While Paris gets to your heart, London to your mind, and Jerusalem to your soul, New York gets into your veins, a lifeline that becomes part of you more than you become part of it.

Nature is neutral. Man has wrested from nature the power to make the world a desert or to make the deserts bloom.

Adlai Stevenson II

A long line of cases shows that it is not merely of some importance, but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.

We are talking about the biggest foreign policy mistake since Suez.

On the Iraq war

I cannot be a good Catholic; I cannot go to heaven; and if a man is to go to the devil, he may as well go thither from the House of Lords as from any other place on earth.

Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk

The horse on the treadmill may be very discontented, but he is not disposed to tell his troubles, for he cannot stop to talk.

Every ounce of resources in our state should be focused on defeating the hidden enemy we all have in common: COVID-19.