Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness, and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions.
—Frantz Fanon
A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn't enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong. The spectacle is nearly always comic.
—Lewis H. Lapham
There are good reasons why everybody should heed politicans' advice not to believe the media. One of the best is that the media report what politicians say.
—Russell Baker
The revolt of the poet is invariably conservative at its roots.… Not politically conservative, but imaginatively conservative, with a profound regard for what is given, as earth or air, sun or moon or stars, or the dreams of man.
—Cid Corman
We need anything politically important rationed out like Pez: small, sweet, and coming out of a funny, plastic head.
—Dennis Miller
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
—Winston Churchill
When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision.
—Lord Falkland
In the Fiji islands, it appears, cannibalism is now familiar. They eat their own wives and children. We only devour widows' houses, and great merchants outwit and absorb the substance of small ones, and every man feeds on his neighbor's labor if he can. It is a milder form of cannibalism.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
—James Madison
One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.
—Bertrand Russell
Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Like its politicians and its wars, society has the teenagers it deserves.
—J. B. Priestley
Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
—Henry Kissinger
Politics is the systematic organization of hatreds.
—Henry Adams
It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
—H. L. Mencken