Last Updated: September 12, 2022 by Quote.cc Team
This curated list of political quotes will help you see the world from a different perspective.
Politics has always played a central role in everyday life, but these political quotes put it all in perspective.
In election years, we see campaigning on our phones, in our newsfeeds, and whenever we turn on the news. The endless campaigning between federal, state, and local elections makes it feel like there’s always a race between Democrats and Republican somewhere.
There are a lot of things to say about politics, so it’s not surprising that there are a lot of political quotes from a wide variety of people. If you’re tired of wading through tons of quotes about politics looking for any that speak to you, you’ve come to the right place. Whoever your ideal candidate is, we’ve collected the best quotes about politics, politicians, elections, and voting.
200 Quotes About Politics
Top 10 Politics Quotes
“Political success is the ability, when the inevitable occurs, to get credit for it.” – Laurence J Peter
“A promising young man should go into politics so that he can go on promising for the rest of his life.” – Robert Byrne
“You have to be for the people to buy the people – Lincoln.” – Al Pacino, Dick Tracy
“the United States, politics is a profession, whereas in Europe it is a right and a duty.” – Umberto Eco
“One can lead a nation only by helping it see a bright outlook. A leader is a dealer in hope.” – Napoléon Bonaparte
“This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
“90% of politicians give the other 10% a bad name.” – Henry Kissinger
“Vote early and vote often.” – Al Capone
“If ignorance goes to forty dollars a barrel, I want drilling rights to George Bush’s head.” – Jim Hightower
“Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed.” – Mao Zedong
Funny Politics Quotes
“The important question is, “how many hands have I shaked?”” – George W. Bush
“Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and all for the same reason.” – José Maria de Eça de Queiroz
“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” – Emma Goldman
“Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.” – Anonymous
“To be radical is to grasp things by the root.” – Karl Marx
“I believe that voting is the first act of building a community as well as building a country.” – John Ensign
“If you want to succeed in politics you must keep your conscience firmly under control.” – David Lloyd George
“The best thing about this group of candidates is that only one of them can win.” – Will Rogers
“A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected.” – Carl Sandburg
“Don’t vote, it only encourages them.” – Billy Connolly
“Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.” – Gore Vidal
“Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, you coast for a while, you have a hell of a closing.” – Ronald Reagan
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
“seldom think of politics more than 18 hours a day.” – Lyndon Johnson
“A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.” – Texas Guinan
“Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.” – Henry Kissinger
“Political judgment is the ability to hear the distant hoofbeats of the horse of history.” – Otto von Bismarck
“In politics, as in every other sphere of life, there are two important principles for a man of any sense: don’t cherish too many illusions, and never stop believing that every little bit helps.” – Italo Calvino
“Being president is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you and nobody’s listening.” – Bill Clinton
“Mankind will never see an end of trouble until lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power become lovers of wisdom.” – Plato
“Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.” – Will Rogers
“Not voting is not a protest. It is a surrender.” – Keith Ellison
“Don’t do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of The Washington Post.” – Donald Rumsfeld
“Don’t buy a single vote more than necessary.” – Douglas William Jerrold
“Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” – George Orwell
“He serves his party best who serves the country best.” – Rutherford B. Hayes
“Politics is war without bloodshed, war is politics with bloodshed.” – Mao Tse-Tung, 1938
“Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.” – Ronald Reagan
“Those who stay away from the election think that one vote will do no good. ‘Tis but one step more to think one vote will do no harm.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.” – Doug Larson
“politics, we must always have a bone to throw to the rebels.” – Joseph Joubert
“I think it’s about time we voted for senators with breasts. After all, we’ve been voting for boobs long enough.” – Claire Sargent
“I love voting day. I love the sight of my fellow citizens lining up to make their voices heard.” – Beth Broderick
“A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law…That portion of the sovereignty, to which each individual is entitled, can never be too highly prized. It is that for which we have fought and bled.” – Alexander Hamilton
“Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.” – John F. Kennedy
“An empty stomach is not a good political advisor.” – Albert Einstein
“A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won’t cross the street to vote in a national election.” – Bill Vaughan
“In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.” – Margaret Thatcher
Dirty Politics Quotes
“When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it.” – Clarence Darrow
“A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they’re dead.” – Leo Rosten
“We can all agree on the importance of voting.” – Jenna Bush Hagar
“Just think what my margin might have been if I had never left home at all.” – John F. Kennedy
“My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. It is very nice now when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.” – Jimmy Carter
“a crooked tree. We’ll send him to Washington.” – Bob Ross
“A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.” – Winston Churchill
“Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing.” – Bernard Baruch
“The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.” – Thomas Sowell
“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it.” – G. K. Chesterton
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” – Ernest Benn
“Democracy is about voting and it’s about a majority vote. And it’s time that we started exercising the Democratic process.” – Debbie Stabenow
“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.” – Gore Vidal
“An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.” – George Eliot; Felix Holt, the Radical
“Before you can begin to think about politics at all, you have to abandon the notion that there is a war between good men and bad men.” – Walter Lippmann
“Politics, noun. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.” – Ambrose Bierce
“The difficulty with businessmen entering politics, after they’ve had a successful business career, is that they want to start at the top.” – Harry Truman
“political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader.” – Bernard Baruch
“Politics is not a game, but a serious business.” – Winston Churchill
“Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.” – Winston Churchill
“So, if we lie to the government, it’s a felony. If they lie to us, it’s politics.” – Bill Murray
“politician is a hybrid of a dancer and an accountant.” – Paul Valery
“The problem with political jokes is that they get elected.” – Henry Cate
“When the political columnists say ‘Every thinking man’ they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to ‘Every intelligent voter’ they mean everybody who is going to vote for them.” – Franklin P. Adams
“Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.” – Aristotle
“It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting.” – Al Smith
“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” – John Lewis
“The politicians were talking themselves red, white and blue in the face.” – Clare Boothe Luce
“In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.” – Charles de Gaulle
“Elections belong to the people.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Every advantage in the past is judged by its final issue.” – Demosthenes, c.340BC
“If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none.” – Ray Bradbury
“Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.” – George Jean Nathan
“There is absolutely no circumstance whatever under which I would accept that spot [the Vice Presidency]. Even if they tied and gagged me, I would find a way to signal by wiggling my ears.” – Ronald Reagan
Office Politics Quotes
“The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
“Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.” – Winston Churchill
“Today I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, a freedom fighters gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand..” – Yasser Arafat, 1974
“In politics, every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it.” – Donald Rumsfeld
“A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Wise politics is the art of strengthening society and weakening the State.” – Nicolas Gomez Davila
“By voting, we add our voice to the chorus that forms opinions and the basis for actions.” – Jens Stoltenberg
“Democrats think the glass is half full. Republicans think the glass is theirs.” – Anonymous
“Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.” – Richard Armour
“The reason there are so few female politicians is that it is too much trouble to put makeup on two faces.” – Maureen Murphy
“Political necessities sometimes turn out to be political mistakes.” – George Bernard Shaw
“As between God, country and apple pie, politicians have done the least harm in the name of apple pie.” – Robert Brault
“If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.” – Jay Leno
“n. In politics the party that prevents the Government from running amok by hamstringing it.” – Ambrose Bierce
“Democracy is not just the right to vote; it is the right to live in dignity.” – Naomi Klein
“A political convention is just not a place where you come away with any trace of faith in human nature.” – Murray Kempton
“I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” – Will Rogers
“I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here.” – Harry S. Truman
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” – Edward R. Murrow
“Man matures when he stops believing that politics solves his problems.” – Nicolas Gomez Davila
“Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country, and this world.” – Sharon Salzberg
“Voting is not only our right – it is our power.” – Loung Ung
“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” – Mark Twain
“Sooner or later…one has to take sides – if one is to remain human.” – Graham Greene
“most common illness among politicians is amnesia.” – André Frossard
“Vote: the instrument and symbol of a freeman’s power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.” – Ambrose Bierce
“Voting is a civic sacrament – the highest responsibility we have as Americans.” – Christine Pelosi
“Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.” – W.C. Fields
“Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.” – Marshall McLuhan
“Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use it.” – Susan B. Anthony
“Politics offers yesterday’s answers to today’s questions” – Marshall McLuhan
“If we don’t vote, we are ignoring history and giving away the future.” – Pat Mitchell
“A politician is like quicksilver: if you try to put your finger on him, you find nothing underneath it.” – Austin O’Malley
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” – Plato
Religion And Politics Quotes
“Religion is the venereal disease of mankind. Politics is the cancer.” – Henry de Montherlant
“Politics is a game of compromise … faith isn’t.” – Cal Thomas
“The garb of religion is the best cloak for power.” – William Hazlitt
“Politics in America is the binding secular religion.” – Theodore H. White
“Politics and religion mixed is the headiest cocktail ever invented.” – Norah Bentinck
“The pursuit of politics is religion, morality, and poetry all in one.” – Madame de Stael
“Religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, they less they are mixed together.” – James Madison
“God and Country are an unbeatable team; they break all records for oppression and bloodshed.” – Luis Buñuel
“Religion is organized to satisfy and guide the soul—politics does the same thing for the body.” – Joyce Cary
“When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way.” – Frank Herbert
“Religious ideas, supposedly private matters between man and god, are in practice always political ideas.” – Christoher Hitchens
“When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.” – Anaïs Nin
“Politics should share one purpose with religion: the steady emancipation of the individual through the education of his passions.” – George Will
“All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All separated from government are compatible with liberty.” – Henry Clay
“Politics is the science of domination, and the persons in the process of enlargement and illumination are notoriously difficult to control.” – Tom Robbins
“I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s.” – Mark Twain
“Persecution is not an original feature of any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of any law-religions, or religions established by law.” – Thomas Paine
“He said that was one of the things he deplored about the loss of religion, it meant that people elevated politics into a religious faith and that was dangerous.” – P. D. James
“How are we to disentangle religion from politics in a revolution? Religion may form the outlook of an individual. It may serve as an ideological intoxicant for a crowd.” – Hugh Trevor-Roper
“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor, and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.” – Eugene V. Debs
“Politics and religion are dangerous subjects, for they may cause ill feeling even in the most cultivated company. Illness, death, and disaster are unpleasant, and consequently should be avoided.” – Lillian Eichler
“The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder’s lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.” – Bertrand Russell
“When the government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion, it conveys a message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the favored beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some.” – Harry Blackmun
“It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.” – Robert A. Heinlein
“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.” – Mark Twain
Bad Politics Quotes
“You’ve got to vote, vote, vote, vote. That’s it; that’s the way we move forward.” – Michelle Obama
“When we vote, we take back our power to choose, to speak up, and to stand with those who support us and each other.” – Loung Ung
“It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.” – George E. MacDonald
“There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen.” – Anonymous
“The ignore of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” – John F. Kennedy
“In politics, an absurdity is not an impediment.” – Napoleon
“I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.” – Charles de Gaulle
“Instead of giving politicians the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.” – Doug Larson
“I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.” – Ronald Reagan
“Nobody should have any illusions. The United States has essentially a one-party system and the ruling party is the business party.” – Noam Chomsky
“The Democrats are the party of government activism, the party that says government can make you richer, smarter, taller, and get the chickweed out of your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work, and then get elected and prove it.” – P.J. O’Rourke
“We live in a world in which politics has replaced philosophy.” – Martin L. Gross
“When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening, foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us.” – Barack Obama
“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” – George Bernard Shaw
“Politics is not an exact science.” – Otto von Bismarck
“Politics is the art of harnessing the passions of others for your own benefit.” – Henry de Montherlant
“Statesmen tell you what is true even though it may be unpopular. Politicians will tell you what is popular, even though it may be untrue.” – Anonymous
“Politicians say they’re beefing up our economy. Most don’t know beef from pork.” – Harold Lowman
“We believe that to err is human. To blame it on someone else is politics.” – Hubert H. Humphries
“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
“A lot has been said about politics; some of it complimentary, but most of it accurate.” – Eric Idle
“There’s no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter. It all matters.” – Barack Obama
“and then an innocent man is sent to the legislature.” – Kin Hubbard
“We are weary of politicians’ politicians. We want ours.” – Gerald Stanley Lee
“was out kissing babies while I was out passing bills. Someone had to tend the store.” – Lyndon Johnson
“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.” – Thomas Sowell
“An honest man in politics shines more there than he would elsewhere.” – Mark Twain
“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.” – Oscar Ameringer
“Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.” – Ronald Reagan
“During a campaign the air is full of speeches — and vice versa.” – Anonymous
“In politics stupidity is not a handicap.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“All parties without exception, when they seek for power, are varieties of absolutism.” – Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
“All people are born alike — except Republicans and Democrats.” – Groucho Marx
“Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.” – John Quinton
“Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.” – Charles de Gaulle
“Finance is a gun. Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.” – Don Lucchese, The Godfather, Part III
“To abstain from politics is in itself a political attitude.” – Simone De Beauvoir
“Authors, comedians, talk show hosts, and even politicians themselves have always managed to find the funny side of politics. Though the reality of an election outcome can be very serious and means a lot to many people, the length of time we are exposed to political campaigns, rallies, and speeches means that we really need to be able to laugh about it too.”
“Every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel. He must, however, take care not to misuse this mercifulness..” – Niccolò Machiavelli, 1513
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” – Winston Churchill
“Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least.” – Robert Byrne
“The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“I don’t know whether the White House is the finest public housing in America or the crown jewel of the American penal system.” – Bill Clinton
“We all know what Parliament is, and we are all ashamed of it.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
“Talk is cheap, voting is free; take it to the polls.” – Nanette L. Avery
Anti Politics Quotes
“I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Métro.” – Charles de Gaulle
“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed, and are right.” – H.L. Mencken
“Voting isn’t the most we can do. But it is the least.” – Gloria Steinem
“Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.” – Arthur Clarke
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” – Winston Churchill
“Every citizen of this country should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their vote is counted, and that in the voting booth, their vote has a much weight as that of any CEO, any member of Congress, or any President.” – Barbara Boxer
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” – Abraham Lincoln
“No one party can fool all of the people all of the time; that’s why we have two parties.” – Bob Hope
“What do you want to be a sailor for? There are greater storms in politics than you will ever find at sea. Piracy, broadsides, blood on the decks. You will find them all in politics.” – David Lloyd George
“Our political leaders will know our priorities only if we tell them, again and again, and if those priorities begin to show up in the polls.” – Peggy Noonan
“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“The buzz of an election day is like no other. Many of us can remember voting in our first election, and the fact that people queue for hours to cast their ballot is testament to the fact that people see voting as a civic duty and a privilege.”
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Losing Friends Over Politics Quotes
“Men can have friends, statesmen cannot.” – Charles de Gaulle
“A politician thinks of the next election – a statesman of the next generation.” – James Freeman Clarke
“A man without a vote is a man without protection.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
“In politics it is necessary either to betray one’s country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.” – Charles de Gaulle
“We’d all like to vote for the best man, but he’s never a candidate.” – Kin Hubbard
“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.” – Nikita Krushchev
“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“I’ve never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a ‘fat cat’ and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a ‘public-spirited philanthropist’.” – Ronald Reagan
“to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.” – Dwight Eisenhower
“Nationality is the principle of political independence – race is the principle of physical analogy.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” – John Quincy Adams
“Voting is as much an emotional act as it is an intellectual one.” – Monica Crowley
“Can’t wait for tomorrow when I get to exercise my patriotic duty as an American: Complaining about how long it’s taking to vote.” – Stephen Colbert
“I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” – Ronald Reagan
“Every election is determined by the people who show up.” – Larry J. Sabato