Political Quotes - Page 27

Our forefathers made one mistake. What they should have fought for was representation without taxation.

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

Changing the way we talk is not political correctness run amok. It reflects an admirable willingness to acknowledge others who once were barely visible to the dominant culture, and to recognize that something that may seem innocent to you may be painful to others.

Those who depend on television as their primary information source are condemned to .... A form of political illiteracy.

A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.

The Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki once stated, 'International cultural exchange is impossible - therefore we must try.' I agree with all my heart. The impossibility of seeing beyond one's own cultural context is a political act in the world and has the potential to break down the rigid assumptions surrounding us.

Political conflicts are merely surface manifestations. If conflicts arise you may be sure that certain powers intend to keep this conflict under operation since they hope to profit from the situation.

We think we can't survive without deficit spending - but we soon won't be able to survive with deficit spending, either.

Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear - and what they want to hear is what won't happen.

Our current political system ensures not that the worst will get on top - though they often do - but that the best will never even apply.

A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.

You will have no sensation of a leash around your neck if you sit by the peg. It is only when you stray that you feel the restraining tug.

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.

All political institutions are manifestations and materializations of power; they petrify and decay as soon as the living power of the people ceases to uphold them.

The notion that aid can alleviate systemic poverty, and has done so, is a myth. Millions in Africa are poorer today because of aid; misery and poverty have not ended but increased. Aid has been, and continues to be, an unmitigated political, economic, and humanitarian disaster for most parts of the developing world.

The essential thing is the formation of the political will of the nation: that is the starting point for political action.

I don't know what to do or where to turn in this taxation matter. Somewhere there must be a book that tells all about it, where I could go to straighten it out in my mind. But I don't know where the book is, and maybe I couldn't read it if I found it.

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.

True Sufism is resistance: spiritual, intellectual, social, cultural, political and economic resistance. It cannot be, for sure, supporting dictators.

Perhaps the challenge is to invent the political structure that will give conscience a better chance against authority.

Women had first to convince the world that they had souls and then that they had minds and then it came on to this matter of political entity and the end is not yet.

I am not a therapist. I am not a spiritual leader. These elements are in the art: it is therapeutic, spiritual, social and political - everything. It has many layers. But art has to have many layers. If it doesn't, then forget it.

Government has no right to control individual liberty beyond what is necessary to the safety and well-being of society. Such is the boundary which separates the power of the government and the liberty of the citizen or subject in the political state.

There is more selfishness and less principle among members of Congress than I had any conception of, before I became President of the U.S.