Elections Quotes

Quotes tagged as "elections" Showing 1-30 of 507
Douglas Adams
“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Gore Vidal
“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.”
Gore Vidal, Screening History

Abraham Lincoln
“Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
Abraham Lincoln

Euripides
“When one with honeyed words but evil mind
Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.”
Euripides, Orestes

Theodore Roosevelt
“A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”
Theodore Roosevelt

Herbert Marcuse
“Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.”
Herbert Marcuse

Otto von Bismarck
“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best.”
Otto von Bismarck

Larken Rose
“Politics: the art of using euphemisms, lies, emotionalism and fear-mongering to dupe average people into accepting--or even demanding--their own enslavement.”
Larken Rose

Abraham Lincoln
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.”
Abraham Lincoln

Matt Taibbi
“In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.”
Matt Taibbi, Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

Thomas L. Friedman
“When widely followed public figures feel free to say anything, without any fact-checking, it becomes impossible for a democracy to think intelligently about big issues.”
Thomas L. Friedman

Naguib Mahfouz
“انتخابات مزورة، كل شخص في البلد يعلم انها مزورة، ومع ذلك يعترف بها رسمياً وتحكم بها البلاد، ويعني هذا أن يستقر في ضمير الشعب أن نوابه لصوص سرقوا كراسيهم، وأن وزراءه لصوص سرقوا بالتالي مناصبهم، وأن سلطاته وحكومته مزيفة مزورة، وأن السرقة والتزييف والتضليل مشروعة رسمياً.. ألا يعذر الرجل العادي إذا كفر بالمبادئ والخلق وآمن بالزيف والانتهازية؟”
نجيب محفوظ, Sugar Street

Aristophanes
“To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them.”
Aristophanes, The Knights

Hunter S. Thompson
“The whole framework of the presidency is getting out of hand. It's come to the point where you almost can't run unless you can cause people to salivate and whip on each other with big sticks. You almost have to be a rock star to get the kind of fever you need to survive in American politics.”
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72

Harry Truman
“[The American President] has to take all sorts of abuse from liars and demagogues.… The people can never understand why the President does not use his supposedly great power to make ’em behave. Well, all the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”
Harry S. Truman

“Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies.”
Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

Dennis E. Adonis
“Voting is not a right. It is a method used to determine which politician was most able to brainwash you.”
Dennis E. Adonis

Molly Ivins
“Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention."

[Shrub Flubs His Dub, The Nation, June 18, 2001]”
Molly Ivins

E.A. Bucchianeri
“Pops added,"you know, they say if you don't vote, you get the government you deserve."
"And if you do, you never get the results you expected," (Katherine) replied.”
E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“Our freedoms are vanishing. If you do not get active to take a stand now against all that is wrong while we still can, then maybe one of your children may elect to do so in the future, when it will be far more riskier — and much, much harder.”
Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

Guy de Maupassant
“You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is impossible for them to elect an intelligent government.”
Guy de Maupassant, Les dimanches d'un bourgeois de Paris, et autres aventures parisiennes

Otto von Bismarck
“People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.”
Otto von Bismarck

Franklin D. Roosevelt
“For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Gene Sharp
“Dictators are not in the business of allowing elections that could remove them from their thrones.”
Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

Rohith S. Katbamna
“Their society had been built to fail. Dynasties of power and parties of authority had on retrospect, staged countless renditions of the same play. Granted, an evolution had occurred. But the story unfolded the same way.”
Rohith S. Katbamna, Down and Rising

Joseph A. Schumpeter
“Politicians are like bad horsemen who are so preoccupied with staying in the saddle that they can’t bother about where they’re going.”
Joseph Alois Schumpeter

Jon   Stewart
“It is perhaps a sign of the strength of our republic that so few people feel the need to participate. That must be the reason.”
Jon Stewart, America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction

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