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Political Philosophy Quotes

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Political Philosophy Quotes

“We must stop asking incumbents who they are training to take their place. This question reinforces the belief that our votes do not count, which discourages people from voting. Public office seats belong to the public. Once an incumbent leaves, they can not give, appoint, or assign that seat to anyone because it is not theirs. Though they can train whomever they wish, ultimately, it is up to us, the people, to vote them in.”

WisdomPoliticsPoliticiansPolitical PhilosophySabrina NewbyVoter SuppressionWe The People
Author:Sabrina Newby
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“Conservatives, on [Friedrich] Hayek’s account, suffered from the following weaknesses. They feared change unduly. They were unreasonably frightened of uncontrolled social forces. They were too fond of authority. They had no grasp of economics. They lacked the feel for “abstraction” needed for engaging with people of different outlooks. They were too cozy with elites and establishments. They gave in to jingoism and chauvinism. They tended to think mystically, much as socialists tended to overrationalize. They were, last, too suspicious of democracy.”

DemocracyLiberalismLibertarianismConservatismPolitical PhilosophyFriedrich Hayek
Book:Liberalism: The Life of an Idea
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“Most schooling is training for stupidity and conformity, and that's institutional, but occasionally you get a spark, somebody'll challenge your mind, make you think and so on, and that has a tremendous effect you just reach all sorts of people. Of course if you do it you may very have problems, you have to tread the narrow line. There are plenty of people who don't want students to think, they're afraid of the crisis of democracy. If people start thinking you get all these problems that I quoted before. They won't have enough humility to submit to a civil rule or they'll start trying to press their demands in the political arena and have ideas of their own, instead of beleiving what they're told. And privelage and power typically doesn't want that and so they react and the high school teacher that tries to get students to think may find oppression, firing and so on.”

EducationEducational PhilosophyPolitical PhilosophyTotalitarianismAnarchismNonconformityEducational SystemConspiracy TheoryNwoConspiraciesOrwellianism
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Don't you understand man? The slogans of capitulation can KILL! Every time we say "Live and let live"--death triumphs! Too much has happened, too much has happened to me. . . . That which warped and distorted all of us is--all around: it is in this very air! This swirling, seething, madness that you ask us all to help maintain! It's no good, Wally--your world. It's no--damn--good! You have forced me to take a position. Finally -- the one thing I never wanted to do. Just being for you is not enough. To live, to breathe--I've got to be against you.”

InspirationalActivismPolitical Philosophy
Book:The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
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“Revolution never happens because it is acceptable, it happens because everything else turns unacceptable. World War 3 has already begun, but unlike the previous times, it is not a war amongst nations, rather it's a war within nations between the forces of inclusion and reason, and the forces of separatism and superstition. And this World War will continue much longer than the previous two times, for this time, it's a war against the elements of inhumanity within our society, within ourselves, which unlike the previous times, cannot be treated by simply shooting down. Guns kill segregationists, not segregation. So this time, and now on, the revolution and all the future revolutions must continue without resorting to violence. I am not talking about simply nonviolence, I am talking about having an actual and utter repulsiveness towards violence. This is the fundamental requirement of a civilized revolution. Show strength through your resolve, not through the eagerness for violence. If a terrorist has a gun to your head, don't fight, stare down at them till they drop the gun (metaphorically speaking).”

Social JusticeHuman RightsActivismNonviolenceWorld PeacePolitical PhilosophyPeace ActivistWar And PeacePeacemakerNonviolent Resistance
Book:Heart Force One: Need No Gun to Defend Society
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“Social Reform 101 (The Sonnet) Brute force isn't always the answer, Sometimes you gotta be clever. Naivety has its place, it keeps you humble, Dealing with hyenas you gotta be a dinosaur. I am not talking about size and appearance, Appearance never brings any lasting change. Here I am talking about the faculties within, For corruption is defeated only by a hearty brain. The best way to control the manipulator is, To give them the illusion of control 'n dominance. To con the con-artist for the greater good, Is not an act of con but an act of conscience. Sentiment is good, but without wisdom it is plain stupid. An activist fights the system, a reformer manipulates it.”

Human RightsCorruptionActivismPolitical PhilosophyPolitical ScienceSocial StudiesSocial ReformerSocial Justice PoemPolitical PoetryFight The Power
Book:Ingan Impossible: Handbook of Hatebusting
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“Counterfeit revolutionaries give in to the comfort and security of authoritarian life, the moment they come to power themselves. Upon coming to power, the most outspoken activist no longer minds getting acquainted with the nuclear codes of inhumanity, in the name of national security. If asked why, their usual answer is - it's a necessary evil. Thus, an activist is only activist till they come to power. Once in power, most of them turn into the same kind of rotten politicians, that they have been fighting against. That's human behavior 101 in relation to political revolution.”

ActivismActivistPolitical PhilosophyPolitical SciencePolitical LeadersPolitical PsychologyPoliticians And PoliticsPolitical RevolutionPoliticians QuotationsFight The System
Book:Mucize Misafir Merhaba: The Peace Testament
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“Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, ....whence it becomes expedient for promoting the publick happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or accidental condition of circumstance.”

CorruptionApathyDeclinePolitical PhilosophyComplacencyMisgovernment
Book:Thomas Jefferson: Writings
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“The task of the political philosopher can only be to influence public opinion, not to organize people for action. He will do so effectively only if he is not concerned with what is now politically possible but consistently defends the "general principles which are always the same." In this sense I doubt whether there can be such a thing as a conservative political philosophy. Conservatism may often be a useful practical maxim, but it does not give us any guiding principles which can influence long-range developments.”

PeopleIfsGivingMayLongDoePhilosophyActionPoliticalOpinionPrinciplesDoubtInfluenceDevelopmentConcernedTasksConservativePhilosopherPracticalsRangeConsistentlyOrganizeMaximsPublic OpinionConservatismPolitical PhilosophyOften IsGuiding PrinciplesConservative Political
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“Political philosophy is realistically utopian when it extends what are ordinarily thought to be the limits of practicable political possibility and, in so doing, reconciles us to our political and social condition. Our hope for the future of our society rests on the belief that the social world allows a reasonably just Society of Peoples.”

WorldPhilosophyPoliticalBeliefSocialConditionsPossibilityLimitsOur SocietyPolitical PhilosophyReconcileUtopianHope For The FutureSocial Conditions
Book:The Law of Peoples: With, The Idea of Public Reason Revisited
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“The adjective "political" in "political philosophy" designates not so much the subject matter as a manner of treatment; from this point of view, I say, "political philosophy" means primarily not the philosophic study of politics, but the political, or popular, treatment of philosophy, or the political introduction to philosophy the attempt to lead qualified citizens, or rather their qualified sons, from the political life to the philosophic life.”

MeanMatterPhilosophyPoliticalViewsStudySubjectsSonCitizensPoint Of ViewTreatmentQualifiedIntroductionPolitical PhilosophySubject MatterAdjectivesPolitical LifePhilosophic
Author:Leo Strauss
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“Our faith in democracy, personal freedoms and human 'rights', and the other comforting prescriptions of the humanist liberal credo stem from the supremacy of maritime over territorial power. Pragmatists may deplore this as crude determinism, as another vain attempt to construct a general theory of history. They should reflect on the sort of political philosophy and structures we might now adhere to had the Habsburgs, Bourbons, Bonaparte, Hitler, Stalin or his heirs prevailed in the titanic world struggles of the past four centuries.”

WorldShouldHumansMayPhilosophyMightPastPoliticalStruggleDemocracyFourRightsCenturyTheoryStructureHuman RightsVainHumanistStemConstructsComfortingPolitical PhilosophyPrescriptionsCrudeHeirsSupremacyDeterminismPersonal FreedomTerritorialBourbonCredoMaritimePragmatistsBonaparte
Book:Maritime Supremacy & the Opening of the Western Mind: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World
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“I learned the importance of a man's chair early in life. I learned that he may love several wives, embrace several cars, be true to more than one political philosophy, and be equally committed to several careers, but he will have only one comfortable chair in his life. I learned it will be an ugly chair. It will match nothing in the entire house. It will never wear out.”

MenMayPhilosophyPoliticalHouseCareersWifeCarComfortableImportanceEmbraceCommittedUglyBeing TrueChairsFurniturePolitical Philosophy
Author:Erma Bombeck
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“It is legitimate to have one's own point of view and political philosophy. But there are people who make anger, rather than a deeply held belief, the basis of their actions. They do not seem to mind harming society as a whole in the pursuit of their immediate objective. No society can survive if it yields to the demands of frenzy, whether of the few or the many.”

PeopleIfsMindPhilosophyWholeSeemsActionPoliticalPoliticsBeliefViewsPartyDemandBasesPoint Of ViewPursuitObjectivesYieldPolitical PartiesPolitical PhilosophyFrenzy
Book:Education, individual, and society: selected addresses
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“My basic political philosophy is, I ain't mad at that. Which basically means I don't have to have a strong opinion about everything. I'm too tired most of the time. Why do I have to take a stand on everything? Sometimes I'm just not mad at it. Like, What do you think about gay marriage? I ain't mad at you, you're gay and you're married: I ain't mad at you, go do it.”

ThinkingMeanSometimesPhilosophyPoliticalStrongOpinionGayMarriedMadTiredGay MarriagePolitical PhilosophyStrong Opinions
Author:Larry Wilmore
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“I sometimes call my new system 'Italian pagan Catholicism,' but it could more accurately be called 'pragmatic liberalism,' with roots in Enlightenment political philosophy. It is a synthesis of the enduring dual elements in our culture, pagan and Judeo-Christian, Romantic and Classic.”

SometimesPhilosophyChristianPoliticalCultureElementsEnlightenmentRootsEndureClassicLiberalismCatholicismItalianPolitical PhilosophyPaganPragmaticSynthesis
Author:Camille Paglia
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“The conclusions seem inescapable that in certain circles a tendency has arisen to fear people who fear government. Government, as the Father of Our Country put it so well, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. People who understand history, especially the history of government, do well to fear it. For a people to express openly their fear of those of us who are afraid of tyranny is alarming. Fear of the state is in no sense subversive. It is, to the contrary, the healthiest political philosophy for a free people.”

PeopleWellsCountryStatesPhilosophySeemsGovernmentPoliticalCertainFatherDangerousMastersGunContraryCirclesTyrannyTendenciesConclusionOur CountryServantFearfulPolitical PhilosophySubversive
Author:Jeff Cooper
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“The liberty I mean is social freedom. It is that state of things in which liberty is secured by the equality of restraint. A constitution of things in which the liberty of no one man, and no body of men, and no number of men, can find means to trespass on the liberty of any person, or any description of persons, in the society. This kind of liberty is, indeed, but another name for justice.”

MenKindMeanPersonsStatesPhilosophyBodyPoliticalNamesSocialJusticeNumbersLibertyConstitutionClassicDescriptionOne ManRestraintFind MePolitical PhilosophySecured
Book:The Portable Edmund Burke
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“I want everyone to keep the property that he has acquired for himself according to the principle: benefit to the community precedes benefit to the individual. But the state should retain supervision and each property owner should consider himself appointed by the state. It is his duty not to use his property against the interests of others among his own people. This is the crucial matter. The Third Reich will always retain its right to control the owners of property.”

PeopleWantShouldMatterStatesPhilosophyUsePoliticalIndividualInterestCommunityPrinciplesDutyBenefitsThirdsPropertyClassicOwnersCrucialPolitical PhilosophySupervision
Author:Adolf Hitler
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“It is impossible that the intention of the entrepreneur who has borrowed in order to increase investment can become effective (except in substitution for investment by other entrepreneurs which would have occurred otherwise) at a faster rate than the public decide to increase their savings”

PhilosophyPoliticalOrderImpossibleIncreaseEntrepreneurIntentionInvestmentRateSavingFasterClassicSavingsPolitical PhilosophyBorrowedSubstitution
Book:General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money
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“If one individual, or one class, can call in the aid of authority to ward off the effects of competition, it acquires a privilege and at the cost of the whole community; it can make sure of profits not altogether due to the productive services rendered, but composed in part of an actual tax upon consumers for its private profit' which tax it commonly shares with the authority that thus unjustly lent its support.”

IfsPhilosophyWholePoliticalIndividualCommunityClassSupportShareEffectsCostTaxesAuthorityCompetitionPrivilegeProfitDuesAidsConsumersClassicAcquireProductivePolitical Philosophy
Book:A treatise on political economy: or, The production, distribution and consumption of wealth
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“The blind spot for the in the Southern Progressive Movement - as for that matter in the national [progressive] movement - was the Negro, for the whole movement in the South coincided paradoxically with the crest of the wave of racism. Still more important to the association of the two movements was the fact that their leaders were often identical. In fact, the typical Progressive reformer rode to power in the South on a disenfranchising or white-supremacy movement.”

StillsTwoImportantMatterPhilosophyWholeFactsPoliticalWhiteLeaderMovementRacismBlindSouthWaveSpotsClassicProgressiveSouthernAssociationTypicalWhite SupremacyPolitical PhilosophyIdenticalSupremacyReformersBlind SpotsProgressive Movement
Author:C. Vann Woodward
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“Laws provide, as much as ispossible that the goods and health of subjects be not injured by the fraud and violence of others. They do not guard them from thenegligence or ill-husbandry of the possessors themselves.”

PhilosophyLawPoliticalViolenceSubjectsIllClassicGoodsFraudInjuredPolitical Philosophy
Book:A Letter Concerning Toleration: Latin and English Texts Revised and Edited with Variants and an Introduction
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“I want you to know that this administration is motivated by a political philosophy that sees the greatness of America in you, her people, and in your families, churches, neighborhoods, communities - the institutions that foster and nourish values like concern for others and respect for the rule of law under God.”

PeopleKnowsWantPhilosophyAmericaLawPoliticalValuesCommunityChurchGreatnessConcernInstitutionsAdministrationOur FamilyNeighborhoodMotivatedI Want YouPolitical PhilosophyRule Of LawConcern For OthersGreatness Of America
Author:Ronald Reagan
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