Have A Favorite Political Quote?

I've been seing a lot of great political quotes floating around lately. Just figured out a format to use some for a new graphic.

I'd like to pull together as many good ones in one place as I can .

Do you have any favorites I should have in the arsenal?

Distressed American
http://www.seedsofdoubt.com/distressedamerican/main.htm

George HW Bush


what an ass

He can kiss my No God Believin' Ass!

a journalist from American Atheists asked him what he was doing to get the atheist vote. that was his response.

AAAAHHHH JEEESSSUUUSSS!

"To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day hero ... assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an un-winnable urban guerilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability."

-- George H.W. Bush, from A World Transformed, 1988.

Being a closed-minded asshole runs in the Bush family, I guess.

no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in".

(Your politician of choice) is no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in".

That's one handy all purpose quote!

...here ya go :)

"The only true knowledge is knowing you know nothing."

Socrates

"The time is now to draw a line in the sand -- to give not one inch, one millimeter, one vote toward the cause of skewing this election. This recount, no matter the outcome, conducted properly, is a necessity for democracy to prevail. Without it, America can never trust another election."

Editors, W. Leon Smith and Don M. Fisher, of The Lone Star Iconoclast

My all-time favorite is Benjamin Franklin, of course:

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

There there's the perfect anti-Freeper quote:
"I can never join with my voice in the toast which I see in the papers attributed to one of our gallant naval heroes. I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong. Fiat justitia, pereat coelum <"Let justice be done though heaven should fall" - anonymous, circa 43 B.C.>. My toast would be, may our country always be successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right." -- John Quincy Adams, August 1, 1816

And on America and Fascism:
"Sure we'll have fascism in America, but it'll come disguised as 100 percent Americanism." -- Huey P. Long

"The more things change, the more things stay the same."

Not sure who said that. Anyone?

So many visions of the future in the past.

Jean Baptiste Alphonse, Karr, to be precise.

French novelist
"plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose"

Will Rogers.

accidentally posted Will twice.

"I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag." Rep. Craig Washington (D)

Just curious. I don't recognize the name. Help me out.

Did the constitution change after 9/11? I don't remember reading that we officially did away with it.

said in response to our current situation. They haven't done away with it yet. But, if Rove figures out how, they will.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb arguing over what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.

Shows what they know.

Good one right NOW. I'll work it up for something SOON. Come on, a well armed lamb is a natural for satire!

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.". -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759

The original words from Franklin are much better since they don't equate voting with arguing.

When they stop lying we'll stop telling the truth!

'First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.'

Short and catchy with a good message.

"As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality."
~ George Washington

Vision of inclusion from a framer. Nice to see some evidence that even though they left so many out to start with they saw that the condition would likey not last.

"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various
ways; the point is to change it." -K. Marx

Heat's off! We hate Arabs now!

makes cowards of men." -- Abraham Lincoln

And

"The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people" -- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis

His speeches are riddled with useful gems.

I expect he's spinning in his grave with George in the Whitehouse whoring out his bedroom to RNC "Pioneers". Yuck!

THAT quote needs to be everywhere. With a little addition to reflect the MSM.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

Think about it folks, old Barry Goldwater was right.

Good choice.

ideal that should be taken to its extreme.

"Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither liberty nor security." -Ben Franklin

in this little Quote-athon. Ah revolutionaries, who loves their freedom more? I ask you.

Howard Dean: "if the percentage of black folks in one's state made them a civil rights expert, Trent Lott would be a Martin Luther King"

It was paraphrased because it's been so long. I have the K Street episode taped, maybe I'll look for it...

Too bad they pounced on the one sound that come out of his mouth that didn't make sense, and beat it to death!

I never heard that one.

John Stuart Mill

George Orwell

"When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental--men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost...

All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre--the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

- H. L. Mencken, in the Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920.

it was actually a Shaw quote.

Some look at the world the way it is and ask why. Others look at the world as it could be and ask why not.

I'm a bit of a pessimist myself. Good to be reminded.

were just as dark with Vietnam and the riots. RFK is my political hero. And liberal pragmatist.

Marx or Lennin, I'm not sure which.

Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

...would be complete without the freedom to take the consequences.

Terry Prachett Discworld

I like it.

favorite quote is:

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." - Aristotle

To me, this characteristic is one of the major differences between conservatives and liberals. How many times have I been insulted for being messed up in the head for simply trying to understand something?

Where are you Franklen People? Sorry, couldn't resist a little (faux) flame baiting...

Thomas Jefferson:
What has destroyed liberty and the rights of men in every government that has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating of all cares and powers into one body.

Aesop:
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.

Anais Nin:
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.:
What we need is a rebirth of satire, of dissent, of irreverence, of an uncompromising insistence that phoniness is phony and platitudes are platitudinous.

Benjamin Whichcote:
Among politicians the esteem of religion is profitable; the principles of it are troublesome.

Confucius:
To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.

Here's good, old Ike, back when the word 'Conservative' wasn't considered an insult:

"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war." Dwight D. Eisenhower

He also said this, and it's SO descriptive of today's US:
"The United States must guard against unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

Did he see something developing inside his own party that he didn't like?

But the quote of all quotes for an European is:

"Ich bin ein Berliner!" JFK, June 26 1963 in Berlin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner

And let me take the opportunity to rewrite it for you guys:
"I'm an American!"

On edit:
This is from a book by Garrison Kellior, Homegrown Democrat:
"Your mother didn't raise you to be a jerk who sucks up to power and treats the help like dirt. Go ahead and prosper, but mind your manners. And don't pick on the vulnerable."

Sums it up.

on CD. So, I could hear him read it. VERY GOOD! Scathing indictment of the Neo Conmen from the man from way up north. I'M going to put it on again right now.

Good quote, by the way...

And a Russian one: He who shoots first, laughs first.

Another, more consumer related: No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

And of course 'You can fool all of the people some of the time, etc..' is most relevant in our current plight, one can only hope.

deservedly so:

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

"Ultimately the issue is whether America will provide global leadership that springs from the unity and integrity of the American people or whether extremist doctrines and the manipulation of truth will define America's role in the world."

-Jimmy Carter

My signature is more favorable for all times, though.

It must be really painful for him watching what we've become under the Petulant weasel.

If anyone knows this is bs, you would think Jimmy Carter would be the person.

"In a free society, diversity is not disorder. Debate is not strife. And dissent is not revolution."

-- George W. Bush, 22 Feb 2002, Qinghua University, Beijing.

A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all.
Tacitus

As the DLC apologists will happily point out as the dismiss ethics and principles as "unrealistic".

por mi tierra y libertad. Esta muy tranquilo. Vamos a ver!

Of course, politics in Mexico aren't exactly honorable either. But, I can't think of anyplace that they are.

But, I have checked on the web for properties in the mountains of Northern Mexico..

and have a lot of friends. Besides, Bin Laden isn't likely to strike Merida. I prefer the surface of the sun hot to northeast winters anyway. highland property sounds pretty nice. I have some friends in Chiapas and they love it. Spend some time in the highlands in Guatemala and was right at home. Know several who work in Oaxaca and would move in a second.

Politics really hasn't been better. I know they remain a bit hosed. However, I trust that Fox actually WAS elected AND he told Bush to bite him on the war.

Takes some huevos to stand up to El gigante del norte! Viva Fox! Viva PAN!

However, I envy you your profession. I live in Washington, love the mountains, forests, even the rain. Lived in Southern California most of my life. Hot and dry is boring at best. Hot and wet is (after Taiwan and, ugh, Florida, is unbearable. I'd love to move to Canada, but alas, I'm retired and don't have enough dough for their requirements.

I haven't mentioned that I have been swarmed by hornets, wasps and killer bees. I kill rattlers on a semiregular basis, sweat and bleed all day long. Hacking jungle vines, thorns and cactus all day long. Worst is the ticks. I get them by the hundreds. One day had more than 300. Its not the discovery channel.

I've lived in the north all my life and would love to shake off winter. Rainy and dry season works for me.

I'm sure the requirements are a lot tougher to hit Canada. I hear British Columbia is nice though. But, then you get Paul Martin. Canada's answer to Bush. Like you said they're everywhere. Pick your flavor of crook...

It has to be interesting. Having majored in history, and still very much interested in it, archeology has to be a helluva lot more interesting than most jobs. At least most jobs that I've held. No, EVERY job that I've held. From dishwasher to counselor.

I almost switched my major from history to anthropology but couldn't shake my desire to know what happened that led us to the mess we now find ourselves in. Still looking, and still enjoying the search.

I've only dabbled in Latin American history, but find it interesting. Read a great diary (the name escapes me) by one of soldiers that accompanied Cortez. Colonialism is a fascinating subject, especially now, with our host of neo-colonialists throwing their weight around.

However, I certainly don't envy you the hornets, wasps, killer bees, and ticks. Here, I've finally been able to clear away the blackberries which have a fiendish ability to leave one bleeding profusely.

David Broder:
Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.

Eleanor Roosevelt:
Campaign behavior for wives: Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the president.

George J. Mitchell:
Although he's regularly asked to do so, God does not take sides in American politics.

George Orwell:
In our age there is no such thing as "keeping out of politics." All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

H. L. Mencken:
A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in.

is the title of citizen."
—US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

Here's two quotes from Adlai Stevenson that show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

"If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them"
-Adlai Stevenson

"In America, anyone can become president. That's one of the risks you take."
-Adlai Stevenson

"Governor Stevenson, all thinking people are for you!" And Adlai Stevenson answered, "That's not enough. I need a majority."

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Some people just have a way with words that touch the most important parts of our existance. :)

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." Coult apply to popular culture too, but I think it fits nicely with these times.

For me politics of today is all about this wicked war.

So my current favorite political quote is a phrase from a friend's church in Philly:

Pray for Peace and Work for Justice

I put it on a blue car ribbon.

that said "Costly Mistake".

Boy, those black ones saying "Costly Mistake" , so sadly on the mark and to the point.

Where can you get one?

Everyone asks when they see it on my car. But as far as I know they're all out and about. Others surely are making similar ones but I don't have any links to offer. Sorry.

Thanks for the update. Maybe I'll run across one and, of course, I'll post the info.

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwightdeisenhowerfarewell.html

The audio of the speech is worth the 10 minutes. Difficult to imagine how our nation would have changed had he chosen to run as a Democrat.....

Thanks. Got to hear the context for the famous warning.

And I think the whole is much greater than the most famous part.

I'd vote for him today.

"McCarthyism is now McCarthywasm"

Thanks for the mp3 by the way, it's the first time I've ever heard the whole thing. Such reasonableness would surely be counted as treason today.

"Dean, Dean, Dean, Dean..." - John Kerry

"I have my warts. I sometimes say things that get me in trouble. In other words, I lead with my heart and not my head. That's the only chance we have against George Bush. "

"I think most people... would be glad to pay the same taxes they paid when Bill Clinton was president, if only they could have the same economy they had when Bill Clinton was president."

"I've waffled before. I'll waffle again."

"Look, I'm not a perfect person. I have my warts. I sometimes say things that get me in trouble. I wear suits that are cheap. But I say what I believe and I believe what I say, and I'm willing to say things that are not popular but ordinary people know are right."

"Sixty percent of us got $304. Has your property taxes gone up more than $304 because the president cut cops on the beat, refused to fund special education, refused to fund "no child left behind?"

"There's not one person in this crowd who's gonna agree with everything I say. Not one."

"We've not had one Republican president in 34 years balance the budget. You can't trust right-wing Republicans with your money. You ought to hire somebody who has balanced a budget. I'm much more conservative with money than George Bush is. "

"
You know, to listen to Senator Lieberman, Senator Kerry, Representative Gephardt, I'm anti-Israel, I'm anti-trade, I'm anti-Medicare and I'm anti-Social Security. I wonder how I ended up in the Democratic Party. I'm not a new entrant to the Democratic Party. I've been here a long time."

- Howard Dean

n/t :kick:

The Man In Black must have had some wisdom to share on the issue. Anyone Lyrics?

to commit atrocities.

Paraphrased as I remember it. I believe Franklin after the signing of the Declaration.

Small minds discuss people
Average minds discuss events
Great minds discuss ideas

"Too bad that all the people who know how to run this country are busy driving taxis and cutting hair." --George Burns

“The tax which will be paid for education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up if we leave the people to ignorance.” - Thomas Jefferson

“Where a constitution, like ours, wears a mixed aspect of monarchy and republicanism, its citizens will naturally divide into two classes of sentiment, according as their tone of body or mind, their habits, connections and callings, induce them to wish to strengthen either the monarchical or the republican features of the constitution. Some will consider it as an elective monarchy, which had better be made hereditary, and therefore endeavor to lead towards that all the forms and principles of its administration. Others will view it as an energetic republic, turning in all its points on the pivot of free and frequent elections.” --Thomas Jefferson to James Sullivan, 1797. ME 9:377

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.” -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1918

“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.”
--Theodore Roosevelt

“The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt, The First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

This is one I haven't seen in this thread, though.


"The best of America is George Washington declining to become king because he preferred to live as an equal rather than rule as a sovereign. This stands in sharp contrast to the current George, who attempts to rule as a sovereign even though he fails to qualify as an equal."-David Podvin


-chef-

:edit: My sig line is also a favorite

and the quote was, "Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through Understanding! - Albert Einstein"

It made sense then..it still works now!

All my favorite quotes are organized on my forum in its quote bank:

http://www.realopinion.com/realboards/forumdisplay.php?f=36

Should be useful. Thanks!

"He that is of the opinion that money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money."

I've always liked "Speak softly and carry a big stick" from Teddy Roosevelt. Of course today's Republicans speak loudly and carry assault weapons instead B-)

One of my very first anti-Bush graphics. I've gotten better since.

The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience.

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.

We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.

We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the light of every passing ship.

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion... We have had thirteen States independent for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half, for each State. What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion?" --
Thomas Jefferson to William S. Smith, 1787. ME 6:372



P.S. I'm leaving to rally at my state capital!

Sign Text:
E-FRAUD!
E-LIES!
E-SCAM!

My favorite quote is “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored”. The quote is by Aldous Huxley from Proper Studies, Notes on Dogma but applies in so many situations. It seems that quote applies so well to the re-election of Bush. Many have ignored the facts, but they still remain to haunt us. May whatever gods be watching have mercy on our souls.