- All generalizations are dangerous, even this one. – attributed to Alexandre Dumas, French author (1824-1895)
- Heresy is another word for freedom of thought. – Graham Greene, English writer (1904-1991)
- Nothing makes people so worthy of compliments as occasionally receiving them. One is more delightful for being told one is delightful – just as one is more angry for being told one is angry. – Katharine Fullerton Gerould, American writer (1879-1944)
- In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us. – Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese monk, activist and writer
- There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all. – Dame Rebecca West, Irish-born novelist (1892-1983)
Political Quotations – Set 5
Jan 22, 2009
Political Quotations – Set 4
Dec 08, 2008
- The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. – Thomas Carlyle, writer (1795-1881)
- Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. – Mark Twain (1835-1910)
- It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. – William G. McAdoo, American government official (1863-1941)
- An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me…It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride and superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too.” They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied…”The one I feed.”
- If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us. – Herman Hesse, German novelist (1877-1962)
Political Quotations – Set 3
Nov 15, 2008
- Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it. – Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)
- Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. – Paul Valery, French poet and critic (1871-1945)
- Life means progress, and progress means suffering. – Hendrik Willem Van Loon, Dutch-born journalist and lecturer (1882-1944)
- The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within. – Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
- The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. – George Orwell
Political Quotations – Set 2
Oct 11, 2008
- Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers. – Mignon McLaughlin, author.
- When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves. – Confucius (551-479 BC).
- At the end of a long and probably very boring meal (at a formal dinner), (British Prime Minister) Macmillan turned to Madame de Gaulle and asked politely what she was looking forward to in her retirement. Quick as a flash the elderly lady replied: “A penis.” Macmillan had been trained all his life never to appear shocked, but even he was a bit taken aback. After drawling out a series of polite platitudes, – “Well, I can see your point of view, don’t have much time for that sort of thing nowadays” – it gradually dawned on him to his intense relief that what the old girl had actually said was “happiness.” – Paul Foot, in the essay A New Definition: The Quality of Life, British Medical Journal, VOLUME 321, DECEMBER 2000.
- The moral test of a government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life — the children; the twilight of life — the elderly; and the shadows of life — the sick, the needy and the handicapped. – Hubert Humphrey, Vice-President of the United States 1965-69.
- When I joined the Labor Party, it contained the cream of the working class. But as I look about me now, all I see are the dregs of the middle class. When will you middle class perverts stop using the Labor Party as a cultural spittoon? – Kim Beazley Snr to an ALP State Conference, circa 1970.
Political Quotations – Set 1
Oct 10, 2008
- Intellect alone is a dry and rattling thing. – Ilka Chase, American author, actress, humorist (1905-1978)
- During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. – George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)
- Whenever ‘A’ attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon ‘B’, ‘A’ is most likely a scoundrel. – H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)
- History is the record of an encounter between character and circumstances. – Donald Creighton, Canadian historian (1902-1979)
- We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – The Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776
Kill All The Journalists First!
Oct 07, 2008
The quotations from the old site will all be migrated across over the next couple of days but it seemed appropriate to start slagging off journalists first!
- Journalists do not believe the lies of politicians, but they do repeat them — which is even worse! – Michel Colucci, comedian and actor (1944-1986)
Quotes From The 2001 Federal Election
Nov 13, 2001
This page provides a collection of extended quotations gathered during the 2001 Federal Election campaign.
The quotes cover the campaign period and the election’s aftermath.
How A Single-Issue Party Held Onto Power
We shall never know for certain that the Tampa would have been, by itself, sufficient to ensure the Howard Government a third term or whether it was the combination of the Tampa “crisis” and September 11 that the Howard Government required. What we do know, however, is that when the now retired Defence Minister, Peter Reith, suggested that al-Qaeda terrorists might be found among the Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers on the leaky vessels travelling to Australia, a politically decisive connection between border control and the terrorist threat to Australia was conjured in the public’s mind. [Read more…]