“Of course a politician's promise isn't worth the paper it's written on.” CoursesWrittenPoliticianPromisePaperSillyAgreementPenaltiesProject ManagementOxymoronFunny OxymoronSilly Stupid Author:Russell Pearce
“The American people need no course in philosophy or political science or church history to know that God should not be made into a celestial party chairman. To most of us, the manipulative invoking of religion to advance a politician or a party is frightening and divisive. The American people will tolerate religious leaders taking positions for or against candidates.” PeopleKnowsNeedsShouldMadePhilosophyPoliticalCoursesChurchReligiousPartyLeaderAtheismPositionPoliticianCandidatesFrighteningToleratePolitical ScienceChairmanCelestialManipulativeReligious LeadersChurch History Author:Mario Cuomo
“[On women getting the vote:] The newspapers, poor dears, looked of course for something very spectacular. But then newspapers are always apt to be more interested in phenomena like meteors than in the slow growth of a mighty tree. Wait ten years, and the politicians will one day wake up and say, 'Look who's here!” YearsLooksCoursesWaitingGrowthPoorTreePoliticianOne DayTenVoteWake UpNewspapersSpectacularSuffrageMeteorsSlow Growth Author:Margaret Case Harriman
“If the US government spends 40 percent of the nation's income, as it does through either borrowing or taxes, that income is not available for people to spend. The deficit is an indirect method of taxation. Of course, politicians prefer to borrow instead of tax because then someone down the road has to deal with the consequences.” PeopleIfsDoeGovernmentCoursesNationsDealsPoliticianTaxesPercentConsequenceMethodAvailableIncomeTaxationDeficitDown The RoadBorrowingIndirect Author:Milton Friedman
“Nobody looks at opinion polls with more attention than politicians, but of course you've got to remember that a single poll is a snapshot in time.” LooksRememberCoursesAttentionOpinionPoliticianPollsSnapshotsOpinion Polls Author:Malcolm Turnbull
“Organisms are starting to move in response to climate change all over the place. Bees are disappearing and we don't have many of the native pollinators left to replace them. We're in deep trouble; there's no question about it. But ecologists tend to think of something that's going to be bad in ten years as very fast, and of course, politicians only think of things in a two-, four-, six-year cycle.” ThinkingYearsTwoMovingCoursesLeftFourTroublePoliticianTenSixClimateResponseClimate ChangeStartingDisappearNativeCyclesBeesOrganisms Author:Paul R. Ehrlich
“Politicians need a film appreciation course.” NeedsFilmCoursesPoliticianAppreciation Author:Anurag Kashyap
“Hiding behind such sacred terms as human rights and distributive justice, politicians and intellectuals alike have perpetrated a gargantuan ruse on humankind: they have convinced us that mass homogeneity is more essential for the betterment of society than is individual initiative, and they have adorned this dubious assumption with assurances that by leveling all distinctions between human beings, collective peace and unity will result as a matter of course, just as water runs downhill or the cart follows the ox.” HumansMatterRunningCoursesIndividualTermWaterJusticeHuman BeingsResultsBehindsRightsPoliticianEssentialsMassSacredUnityHuman RightsConvincedAssumptionDistinctionCollectivesHidingHumankindInitiativeAssuranceCartsBettermentDubiousHomogeneityPeace And Unity Author:Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora
“Dalai Lama is transforming those criteria - and the whole way of conducting politics. He's conducting politics in a much deeper way than most politicians are able to. He's the only politician I know of who's a monk. The Pope, of course, is in a similar position, but the Pope isn't in the same way leading a country of many million people.” PeopleKnowsWayCountryWholeAbleCoursesMillionsPositionPoliticianDeeperPopeMonkCriteriaTransformingConductingLamaDalai Author:Pico Iyer
“Both [Donald] Trump and Bernie [Sanders] got to this idea of the vanishing middle class sooner and with more passion than more mainstream politicians, and benefited from it. The difference, of course, is that Bernie understood this in a more compassionate framework, and talked about it in conjunction with a revitalization of another part of the American project, which is the notion that we are all created equal, and that our laws and culture and action ought to reflect that.” IdeasActionLawCulturePassionCoursesDifferencesClassMiddleOughtTrumpPoliticianEqualProjectsUnderstoodNotionMiddle ClassCompassionateMainstreamFrameworkVanishingConjunctionsRevitalization Author:George Saunders
“If you look at some of the language in the basic writings of Hamas, there is that famous call to push the Israelis into the sea. Now, I would say that most Palestinian politicians on the ground say, of course that's not what we want, and even within Hamas there is some published debate about that claim, but until the claim is removed, it's still noxious.” IfsWantWritingLooksStillsCoursesLanguageSeaPoliticianClaimsDebatePalestinianHamas Author:Judith Butler
“If politicians get money to spend and don't have to be responsible for taxation, then of course that will bias their attitude toward more spending as opposed to cutting back on spending.” IfsCoursesAttitudeCuttingPoliticianResponsibleSpendingBiasTaxationBeing ResponsibleGet Money Author:James M. Buchanan
“I think this mythology - that we're all beyond race, of course our police officers aren't racist, of course our politicians don't mean any harm to people of color - this idea that we're beyond all that (so it must be something else) makes it difficult for young people as well as the grown-ups to be able to see clearly and honestly the truth of what's going on. It makes it difficult to see that the backlash against the Civil Rights Movement manifested itself in the form of mass incarceration, in the form of defunding and devaluing schools serving kids of color and all the rest.” PeopleThinkingWellsMeanIdeasKidsAbleSchoolFormYoungCoursesDifficultRaceRightsMovementColorPoliticianMassPoliceHarmHonestlyMythologyCivil RightsRacistServingOfficersCivil Rights MovementPolice OfficerIncarcerationBacklashMass Incarceration Author:Michelle Alexander
“In the course of his presidency, Obama has gone from an almost magical charismatic figure to an ordinary politician. Ordinary. Average.” CoursesGoneFiguresPoliticianOrdinaryAveragePresidencyCharismatic Author:Charles Krauthammer
“It is the future, of course, which politicians grapple with, and that is why politics is so disorderly. Only history clears away some of the debris.” CoursesPoliticianDebris Author:Madeleine M. Kunin
“I think I should be active politically. Because I look upon myself as a politician. That's not a dirty work you know. Some people think that there are something wrong with politicians. Of course, something wrong with some politicians.” PeopleThinkingKnowsShouldLooksCoursesPoliticianActiveDirtyNaughtyDirty Work Author:Aung San Suu Kyi
“Of course, politicians always say they're just describing their opponents' positions, even if they are in fact offering absurd caricatures, if not outright lies.” IfsFactsLyingCoursesPositionPoliticianAbsurdOpponentsOfferingDescribingCaricatures Author:James Surowiecki