“There are no true friends in politics. We are all sharks circling, and waiting, for traces of blood to appear in the water.”
“If I was forced to choose between the penitentiary and White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you.”
“To rely upon conviction, devotion, and other excellent spiritual qualities -- that is not to be taken seriously in politics.”
“Any 20 year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn't a conservative doesn't have a brain.”
“The history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.”
“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.”
“We have never yet had a labor Government that knew what taking power really means; they always act like second-class citizens.”
“Yogi met George Bush during an election campaign. Bush said Texas was important. Yogi said Texas has a lot of electrical votes.”
“Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.”
“Within the first few months I discovered that being president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed.”
“You slam a politician, you make out he's the devil, with horns and hoofs. But his wife loves him, and so did all his mistresses.”
“Politic is going to be diluted down into a ten second window, where you whack the guy as hard as you can and then get out there.”
“When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.”
“It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.”
“Politics should share one purpose with religion: the steady emancipation of the individual through the education of his passions.”
“A candidate could easily commit political suicide if he were to come up with an unconventional thought during a presidential tour.”
“A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a practice of tenure in public office.”
“A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.”
“Legislators: Rape their wives and do two years. Kill their children and do five years. Steal their money and kiss your ass goodbye.”
“Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”
“We mustn't be stiff and stand-off, you know. We must be thoroughly democratic, and patronize everybody without distinction of class.”
“In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.”
“It is the eternal truth in the political as well as the mystical body, that, where one members suffers, all the members suffer with it.”
“Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.”
“When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it, and I didn't inhale, and I never tried again.”
“If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government.”
“A passion for politics stems usually from an insatiable need, either for power, or for friendship and adulation, or a combination of both.”
“The Empress is legitimate, my cousin is Republican, Morny is Orleanist, I am a socialist; the only Bonapartist is Persigny, and he is mad.”
“If you're I politics and you can't tell when you walk into a room who's for you and who's against you, then you're in the wrong line of work.”
“One can say that three pre-eminent qualities are decisive for the politician: passion, a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of proportion.”