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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Political literature90 quotes
The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. — Karl Marx · 1848From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs! — Karl Marx · 1883Man is by nature a political animal. — Aristotle · 350 BCNo tyrant need fear till men begin to feel confident in each other. — Aristotle · 350 BCAmbition must be made to counteract ambition. — James Madison · 1788Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. — James Madison · 1787All 90 quotes →Political speech32 quotes
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857Every Communist must grasp the truth: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." — Mao Zedong · 1938Parties must ever exist in a free country. — Edmund Burke · 1775In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman. — Margaret Thatcher · 1965A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted-in the air. A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards. A liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest...of his head. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1939The government strong enough to give you what you want is strong enough to take it all away. — Barry Goldwater · 1964All 32 quotes →Philosophical literature19 quotes
Man is by nature a political animal. — Aristotle · 350 BCDemocracy passes into despotism. — Socrates · 375 BCNo tyrant need fear till men begin to feel confident in each other. — Aristotle · 350 BCThe State is not "abolished", it withers away. — Friedrich Engels · 1878Politics makes strange bedfellows. — Charles Dudley Warner · 1870He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled. — Aristotle · 335 BCAll 19 quotes →Autobiography and memoir10 quotes
Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, had always been the systematic organization of hatreds. — Henry Adams · 1907The great masses of the people...more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one. — Adolf Hitler · 1925Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces. — Henry Adams · 1907Practical politics consists in ignoring facts. — Henry Adams · 1907To abstain from politics is in itself a political attitude. — Simone de Beauvoir · 1960Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education. — Henry Adams · 1907All 10 quotes →Economic literature6 quotes
The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. — Karl Marx · 1848From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs! — Karl Marx · 1883The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. — Karl Marx · 1848There is an invisible hand in politics that operates in the opposite direction to the invisible hand in the market. In politics, individuals who seek to promote only the public good are led by an invisible hand to promote special interests that it was no part of their intention to promote. — Milton Friedman · 1983No man made the land. It is the original inheritance of the whole species. Its appropriation is wholly a question of general expediency. When private property in land is not expedient, it is unjust. — John Stuart Mill · 1848Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose. — John Maynard Keynes · 1919Legal writing6 quotes
Campaign promises are-by long democratic tradition-the least binding form of human commitment. — Antonin Scalia · 2002We hold that obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press. — William J. Brennan, Jr. · 1957It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country. — Louis Brandeis · 1932Right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues, than through any kind of authoritative selection. To many this is, and will always be, folly; but we have staked upon it our all. — Learned Hand · 1943In all tyrannical governments, the supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men; and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty. — William Blackstone · 1769Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. — John Paul Stevens · 2000Comedy3 quotes
If you wanted to join the P.F.J., you'd have to really hate the Romans. — Reg · 1979Listen, the only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front! — Reg · 1979Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. — Dennis · 1975Comedy (film)3 quotes
If you wanted to join the P.F.J., you'd have to really hate the Romans. — Reg · 1979Listen, the only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front! — Reg · 1979Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. — Dennis · 1975Drama3 quotes
Follow the money. — Deep Throat · 1976You know, when Khruschev was forced out, he sat down and he wrote two letters and gave them to his successor. He said, "When you get yourself into a situation you can't get out of, open the first letter, and you'll be safe. When you get yourself into another situation you can't get out of, open the second letter." Well, soon enough, this guy found himself in a tight place so you open the first letter which says blame everything on me. So he blamed the old man, it worked like a charm. When he got himself into a second situation he couldn't get out of, he opened the second letter. It said, "Sit down, and write two letters." — General Ralph Landry · 2000You think I have time to ask a man why he givin' me money or where he gets his money from? I'll take any motherfucker's money if he givin' it away! — Clay Davis · 2006Feminist literature3 quotes
Revolution is the festival of the oppressed. — Germaine Greer · 1970I am angry. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · 2014The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. — H.L. Mencken · 1918Biography2 quotes
Elections of any kind are fucking bourgeois affectation. — Cleve Jones · 2008Politics grease the wheels of business. — R.H. Tawney · 1958Crime2 quotes
You know, when Khruschev was forced out, he sat down and he wrote two letters and gave them to his successor. He said, "When you get yourself into a situation you can't get out of, open the first letter, and you'll be safe. When you get yourself into another situation you can't get out of, open the second letter." Well, soon enough, this guy found himself in a tight place so you open the first letter which says blame everything on me. So he blamed the old man, it worked like a charm. When he got himself into a second situation he couldn't get out of, he opened the second letter. It said, "Sit down, and write two letters." — General Ralph Landry · 2000You think I have time to ask a man why he givin' me money or where he gets his money from? I'll take any motherfucker's money if he givin' it away! — Clay Davis · 2006Dissenting opinion2 quotes
It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country. — Louis Brandeis · 1932Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. — John Paul Stevens · 2000Drama (film)2 quotes
Follow the money. — Deep Throat · 1976You know, when Khruschev was forced out, he sat down and he wrote two letters and gave them to his successor. He said, "When you get yourself into a situation you can't get out of, open the first letter, and you'll be safe. When you get yourself into another situation you can't get out of, open the second letter." Well, soon enough, this guy found himself in a tight place so you open the first letter which says blame everything on me. So he blamed the old man, it worked like a charm. When he got himself into a second situation he couldn't get out of, he opened the second letter. It said, "Sit down, and write two letters." — General Ralph Landry · 2000Adventure novel1 quote
I asked Tom if countries always apologized when they had done wrong, and he says:
"Yes, the little ones does." — Mark Twain · 1894Animation1 quote
Jessie's right! Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from threat of force! — Barbie · 2010Animation (film)1 quote
Jessie's right! Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from threat of force! — Barbie · 2010Biography (film)1 quote
Elections of any kind are fucking bourgeois affectation. — Cleve Jones · 2008Comedy drama1 quote
Well, as I said, this is a man's world, Jeff, and you gotta check your ideals outside the door like you do your others. — Senator Joseph Paine · 1939Comedy drama (film)1 quote
Well, as I said, this is a man's world, Jeff, and you gotta check your ideals outside the door like you do your others. — Senator Joseph Paine · 1939Commencement address1 quote
It's worth remembering this: freedom of expression sustains all the other freedoms we enjoy. — Ian McEwan · 2015Crime (TV)1 quote
You think I have time to ask a man why he givin' me money or where he gets his money from? I'll take any motherfucker's money if he givin' it away! — Clay Davis · 2006Crime (film)1 quote
You know, when Khruschev was forced out, he sat down and he wrote two letters and gave them to his successor. He said, "When you get yourself into a situation you can't get out of, open the first letter, and you'll be safe. When you get yourself into another situation you can't get out of, open the second letter." Well, soon enough, this guy found himself in a tight place so you open the first letter which says blame everything on me. So he blamed the old man, it worked like a charm. When he got himself into a second situation he couldn't get out of, he opened the second letter. It said, "Sit down, and write two letters." — General Ralph Landry · 2000Drama (TV)1 quote
You think I have time to ask a man why he givin' me money or where he gets his money from? I'll take any motherfucker's money if he givin' it away! — Clay Davis · 2006Dystopian fiction1 quote
There are only four ways in which a ruling class can fall from power. Either it is conquered from without, or it governs so inefficiently that the masses are stirred to revolt, or it allows a strong and discontented Middle group to come into being, or it loses its own self-confidence and willingness to govern. These causes do not operate singly, and as a rule all four of them are present in some degree. A ruling class which could guard against all of them would remain in power permanently. Ultimately the determining factor is the mental attitude of the ruling class itself. — George Orwell · 1949Historical literature1 quote
Hope has never trickled down. It has always sprung up. — Studs Terkel · 2003Political1 quote
Well, as I said, this is a man's world, Jeff, and you gotta check your ideals outside the door like you do your others. — Senator Joseph Paine · 1939Political (film)1 quote
Well, as I said, this is a man's world, Jeff, and you gotta check your ideals outside the door like you do your others. — Senator Joseph Paine · 1939Satire1 quote
Anyone who campaigns for public office becomes disqualified for holding any office at all. — Thomas More · 1516Scientific literature1 quote
The priest persuades humble people to endure their hard lot; the politician urges them to rebel against it; and the scientist thinks of a method that does away with the hard lot altogether. — Max Perutz · 1989