“Politicians need a better understanding of global ecology. We need to be freed from our species-specific arrogance. No evidence exists that we are chosen, the unique species for which all the others were made. Nor are we the most important one because we are so numerous, powerful and dangerous.” NeedsMadeImportantUnderstandingPowerfulDangerousPoliticianUniqueEvidenceSpeciesChosenArroganceEcology Author:Lynn Margulis
“Actually we're not hearing a lot about gas prices right now from constituents. And I think that reflects a growing understanding on the part of the public, that there really is very little that the government and politicians can do.” ThinkingLittlesGovernmentUnderstandingCan DoGrowingPoliticianRight NowHearingGasConstituentsGas Prices Author:John Yarmuth
“Why I've never been that fond of politics and only got into it recently kicking and screaming, because I don't think politicians are going to reverse the trajectory of this country. I think it's going to depend on the American people understanding what is fair and what makes their lives better.” PeopleThinkingCountryUnderstandingDependsPoliticianFairsReverseKickingTrajectory Author:Charles Koch
“I'm convinced that the most important division in human affairs is probably not the one between left and right, liberal and conservative. It's the one between zealotry and understanding, between absolute conviction and compromise, between preachers and politicians.” HumansImportantLeftUnderstandingPoliticianAbsolutesAffairConservativeConvictionConvincedCompromiseDivisionPreacherLeft And RightZealotry Author:Bill Keller
“By the end of the documentary [ '13th'], you really understand what prison is, what the prison industrial complex is, where this whole Black Lives Matter movement comes from, the history of resistance, the history of how politicians have used criminality over the decades for a particular political gain. It's to give people an understanding of it so they can make their own decisions about how they want to be in the world.” PeopleWorldWantGivingEndsMatterWholePoliticalUsedUnderstandingBlackDecisionMovementParticularPoliticianGainsPrisonComplexesDecadesResistanceDocumentariesBlack Lives MatterCriminalityBlack Lives Author:Ava DuVernay
“People with long memories and a vivid sense of the past have an immediate understanding of politicians like Donald Trump. They are not surprised by the behavior of Google, a corporation that notionally (until recently anyway) espoused the slogan "don't be evil" and then runs over individual people and even entire nations in the pursuit of profit.” PeopleLongRunningPastEvilIndividualNationsUnderstandingMemoriesTrumpPoliticianBehaviorProfitPursuitCorporationsGoogleVividSlogans Author:Dale Jamieson
“Some people naturally have a sense of empathy and an understanding of how to bring their followers to do things. They become great politicians.” PeopleUnderstandingPoliticianEmpathyFollowers Author:Colin Powell
“I think the arrogance of people who think or actually are in the establishment, think they're part of it or actually are, they cannot help themselves, apparently. They take this guy, Trump, who is not a politician, in the career sense, and they plug him into their system and analyze what he does and what he says the way they analyze professional politicians and what they say and do, and they miss it. Which is not news. The news is they're not even getting close to understanding it yet. Despite the never-ending efforts on the part of people like me to help them figure it out.” PeopleThinkingHelpingGuyUnderstandingEffortMissingPoliticianArrogance Author:Rush Limbaugh
“The thing about living in a place like Nebraska is there aren't that many people, so your circle of acquaintances is going be much more diverse. Everyone would go to the same bar, like the local politicians and construction workers. The class intersections were fascinating to me. And of course there's a whole other conversation about what a huge source of growth it was for me in terms of understanding people and the world in a way that I hadn't in New York. I used to say that L.A. is essentially New York with yards.” PeopleWorldUnderstandingGrowthTermPoliticianConstructionDiverseAcquaintance Author:Meghan Daum
“I'm in favour of politicians having extra-marital relationships. Oh yeah. It makes them more understanding of the flaws that the rest of us have.” UnderstandingPoliticianYeahExtrasFlawsFavour Author:Joe Klein