Great Throughts Treasury

"In the so-called Western secular democracy… a divorce has been effected between politics and religion, and as a result of this secularization, the society and particularly its politically active elements have ceased to attach much or any importance to morality or ethics." - Abu’l A’la Mawdudi

"Politics, as hopeful men practice it in the world, consists mainly of the delusion that a change in form is a change in substance." -

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary." -

"Military action without politics is like a tree without a root." - Ho Chi Minh

"We are shown that our live exists with the tree life, that our well-being depends on the well-being of the vegetable life, that we are close relatives of the four-legged beings. In our ways, spiritual consciousness is the highest form of politics… We believe that all living things are spiritual beings. Spirits an be expressed as energy forms manifested in matter. A blade of grass is an energy form manifested in matter - grass matter. The spirit of the grass is that unseen force which produces the species of grass, and it is manifest to us in the form of real grass." - Mohawk Nation NULL

"In our age there is no such thing as “keeping out of politics.” All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia." -

"Everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics." - Charles Pierre Péguy

"There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world. But… the history of power politics is nothing but the history of international crime and mass murder… This history is taught in schools, and some of the greatest criminals are extolled as its heroes." -

"Relying on politics for your sense of who you are greatly impedes your ability to remain true to yourself, your views, and your values." - Robert Edward Rubin, aka Eddy Rubin

"The true problems of living – in politics, economics, education, marriage, etc. – are always problems of overcoming or reconciling opposites. They are divergent problems and have no solution in the ordinary sense of the word. They demand of man not merely the employment of his reasoning powers but the commitment of his whole personality." - E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

"When the print press examines a politician’s performance, very few voters are interested in detail. The essence of the modern campaign is personality politics: the direct impressions that viewers form from thirty-second daily blips on the Boss Tube, preaching homilies and honing bumpers-sticker themes to stick in voter’s memories." - Hedrick Smith

"Renunciation of world politics offers no protection from its consequences." - Oswald Spengler, fully Oswald Manuel Arnold Gottfried Spengler

"The pursuit of politics is religion, morality, and poetry all in one." -

"All human societies supplement politics with ethics; all of them to some degree are ordered by a moral code, if only honor among thieves." - James R. Flynn, aka Jim Flynn

"Weapons didn't defeat slavery. Nor did war, nor politics, nor even the Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery fell because it offended the human spirit, broke the human heart, and thus could not stand." - Aaron Freeman

"There are seven things that will destroy us: Wealth without work; Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Religion without sacrifice; Politics without principle; Science without humanity; Business without ethics." -

"Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war." -

"Most teachers do not like controversy. A study some years ago found that 92 percent of teachers did not initiate discussion of controversial issues, 89 percent didn't discuss controversial issues when students brought them up, and 79 percent didn't believe they should. Among the topics that teachers felt children were interested in discussing but that most teachers believed should not be discussed in the classroom were the Vietnam War, politics, race relations, nuclear war, religion, and family problems such as divorce." - Jack L. Nelson & William B. Stanley

"I recognize no moral law in politics. Politics is a game, in which every sort of trick is permissible, and in which the rules are constantly being changed by the players to suit themselves." - Adolph Hitler

"Politics is history in the making." - Adolph Hitler

"I recognize no moral law in politics. Politics is a game, in which every sort of trick is permissible, and in which the rules are constantly being changed by the players to suit themselves." -

"Politics is history in the making." -

"In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution." - Alexander Hamilton

"The riddle of the universe is not so simple. There is the aspect of permanence in which a given type of attainment is endlessly repeated for its own sake; and there is the aspect of transition to other things - it may be of higher worth and it may be of lower worth. Also there are aspects of struggle and of friendly help. But romantic ruthlessness is no nearer to real politics, than is romantic self-abnegation." - Alfred North Whitehead

"Politics is the conduct of public affairs for private advantage." - Ambrose Gwinett Bierce

"Insist on reading the great books, on marking the great events of the world. Then the little books can take care of themselves, and the trivial incidents of passing politics and diplomacy may perish with the using." - Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, known as Dean Stanley

"When Abraham Lincoln was a young man he ran for the Legislature in Illinois and was badly swamped. Next he entered business, failed and spent seventeen years of his life paying up the debts of a worthless partner. He was in love with a beautiful young woman to whom he became engagedand then, she died. Later he married a woman who was a constant burden to him. Entering politics again, he was badly defeated for Congress. He failed to get an appointment to the U.S. Land Office. He was badly defeated for the U.S. Senate. In 1856 he became a candidate for the Vice-Presidency and was again defeated. In 1858 he was defeated by Douglas. One failure after another, bad failures, great setbacks. In the face of all this he eventually became one of the country's greatest men, if not the greatest. When you think of a series of setbacks like this, doesn't it make you feel small to become discouraged, just because you think that you're having a hard time in life?" - Author Unknown NULL

"In politics nothing is contemptible." - Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

"In all affairs, love, religion, politics or business, it's a healthy idea, now and then, to hang a question mark on things you have long taken for granted." - Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell

"Nine times out of ten a man’s politics can be predicted from the way in which he makes his living." - Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell

"Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow. And politics is the bow of idealism." - Bill Moyers

"In religion as in politics it so happens that we have less charity for those who believe half our creed, than for those who deny the whole of it." - Charles Caleb Colton

"There are two major kinds of promises in politics: the promises made by candidates to the voters and the promises made by the candidates to persons and groups able to deliver the vote. Promises falling into the latter category are loosely called “patronage,” and promises falling into the former category are most frequently called “lies.”" - Dick Gregory

"Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together." - Edmund Burke

"War suspends the rules of moral obligation, and what is long suspended is in danger of being totally abrogated. Civil wars strike deepest of all into the manners of the people. They vitiate their politics; they corrupt their morals; they pervert their natural taste and relish of equity and justice. By teaching us to consider our fellow-citizens in a hostile light, the whole body of our nation becomes gradually less dear to us. The very nature of affection and kindred, which were the bond of charity, whilst we agreed, become new incentives to hatred and rage, when the communion of our country is dissolved." - Edmund Burke

"Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world." - Emma Goldman

"The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in government than in politics." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, fully Franklin Delano Roosevelt, aka FDR

"A science of economics must be developed before a science of politics can be logically formulated. Essentially, economics is the science of determining whether the interests of human beings are harmonious or antagonistic. This must be known before a science of politics can be formulated to determine the proper functions of government." - Frédéric Bastiat, fully Claude Frédéric Bastiat

"In our age there is no such thing as “keeping out of politics.” All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia." - George Orwell, pen name of Eric Arthur Blair

"Politics... have always been the systematic organization of hatreds." -

"Politics is how you live your life, not whom you vote for." - Jerry Rubin

"In politics you have no friends, only allies." -

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable." - John Kenneth Galbraith, aka "Ken"

"In politics, religion is now a name; in art, a hypocrisy or affectation." - John Ruskin

"Politics will be replaced by imagery. The politician will only be too happy to abdicate in favor of his image because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be." -

"[Rakove’s Law of Principle and Politics] The citizen is influenced by principle in direct proportion to this distance from the political situation." - Milton Rakove

"Politics is the life blood of democracy. To call politics “dirty” is to call democracy “dirty.”" - Nelson Rockefeller, fully Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller

"Politics resemble religion; attempting to divest either of ceremony is the most certain mode of bringing either into contempt." - Oliver Goldsmith

"Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!" - Pericles NULL