“Political judgment is the ability to hear the distant hoofbeats of the horse of history.”
More from Otto von Bismarck on Politics
“When you say that you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out.”
“Politics is not an exact science.”
“The king reigns but does not govern.”
“(The great questions of the day) are not decided by speeches and majority votes but by blood and iron.”
“To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.”
“The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.”
“Politics is the art of the possible.”
“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best”
Others on Politics
Charles de Gaulle
6 quotes“In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.”
Ronald Reagan
6 quotes“Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.”
H. L. Mencken
6 quotes“A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.”
Tocqueville
5 quotes“The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.”
Margaret Thatcher
4 quotes“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.”
George Orwell
4 quotes“Patriotism is usually stronger than class hatred, and always stronger than internationalism.”
Henry Adams
4 quotes“Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.”
FDR
3 quotes“Presidents are selected, not elected.”
John Kenneth Galbraith
2 quotes“Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”
Mark Twain
2 quotes“If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.”
John le Carré
2 quotes“Tyranny is like the electric wiring in an old house. A tyrant dies, the new tyrant takes possession, and all he has to d...”
Sir Winston Churchill
2 quotes“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”