Politician Quotes

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

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)

Over the postwar years, we have granted to the elite and secret police within our system vast new powers over the lives and liberties of the people. At the request of the trusted and respected heads of those forces, and their appeal to the necessities of national security, we have exempted those grants of power from due accounting and strict surveillance.

It is magnificent, but it is not war; it is madness.

One must not be provoked when someone provokes him.

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.

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

Not thus HYPERBOLA; — with subtlest art The blue-eyed wanton plays her changeful part; Quick as her conjugated axes move Through every posture of luxurious love, Her supportive limbs with easiest grace expand....

First, there are good people out there; they just don't make so much of a racket. Second, if you don't make waves, then the bad guys don't get washed overboard. And third, nobody bothers to bad-mouth you unless they're afraid of you. So think of it as kind of a compliment.

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

My mother is a great hunter — she usually shoots our Thanksgiving turkey.

Kirsten Gillibrand

It's a great honour for me; it's such an important job.

The carrion crow, that loathsome beast,
Which cries against the rain.

George Gascoigne

I would like to ask a question. Would this sort of war or savage bombing which has taken place in Vietnam have been tolerated for so long, had the people been European?

I reject get-it-done, make-it-happen thinking. I want to slow things down so I understand others better.

My coming to England in this way is, as I realize, so unusual that nobody will easily understand it. I was confronted by a very hard decision. I do not think I could have arrived at my final choice unless I had continually kept before my eyes the vision of an endless line of children's coffins with weeping mothers behind them, both English and German, and another line of coffins of mothers with mourning children.

Abolitionism proposes to destroy the right and extinguish the principle of self-government for which our forefathers waged a seven years' bloody war, and upon which our system of free government is founded.

Stephen A. Douglas

I offer my noble respects to the heroic Korean people who, despite the difficult living conditions caused by life-threatening sanctions and blockade, have firmly trusted, absolutely supported and dynamically implemented our Party's line of simultaneously promoting the two fronts.

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

The Bush National Security Strategy is the imperial edict of a superpower out to exploit its present supremacy to make itself permanent Lord Protector of the universe.

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.

Enhanced interactions and cooperation between China and the United States serve the interests of our two peoples and are conducive to world peace and development. We should stay firmly rooted in the present while looking ahead to the future, and view and approach China-U.S. relations from a strategic and long-term perspective. We should, on the basis of the principles set forth in the three Sino-U.S. joint communiqués, respect each other as equals and promote closer exchanges and cooperation. This will enable us to make steady progress in advancing constructive and cooperative China-U.S. relations, and bring more benefits to our two peoples and people of the world.

We've got to remember that the people who first hit us in 9/11 entered this country through Canada.

This president is a miserable failure on foreign policy and on the economy and he's got to be replaced.

Good jests ought to bite like lambs, not dogs: they should cut, not wound.

Charles II of England