In November this year, a vitally important election will take place. The outcome of that election will determine the next Prime Minister of New Zealand. With that in mind, here is a list of 20 pithy political passages! Oh – and the American Election is in November too.
1. “It’s income tax time again, Americans: time to gather up those receipts, get out those tax forms, sharpen up that pencil, and stab yourself in the aorta.” – Dave Barry
2. “We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle” – Winston Churchill [image above]
3. “The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance” – Thomas Jefferson
4. “Elections should be held on April 16th – the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.” – Thomas Sowell
5. “The tendency of taxation is to create a class of persons who do not labor, to take from those who do labor the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor.” – William Cobbett
6. “A lot has been said about politics; some of it complimentary, but most of it accurate” – Eric Idle
7. “A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker.” – H.L. Mencken
8. “‘Politics’ is made up of two words, ‘poli,’ which is Greek for ‘many,’ and ‘tics,’ which are blood-sucking insects.” – Gore Vidal [image above]
9. “When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President — I’m beginning to believe it.” – Clarence Darrow
10. “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House—with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” – John F Kennedy, 35th US President, At dinner for 49 Nobel laureates 29 Apr 62
11. “In Germany, under the law everything is prohibited except that which is permitted. In France, under the law everything is permitted except that which is prohibited. In the Soviet Union, everything is prohibited, including that which is permitted. And in Italy, under the law everything is permitted, especially that which is prohibited.” – Newton Minow
12. “Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.” – H.L. Mencken
13. “It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” – Voltaire [image above]
14. “Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism it’s just the opposite.” – John Kenneth Galbraith
15. “Democracy’s the worst form of government except for all the others.” – Winston Churchill
![20070322-George-Orwell[4]](http://listverse.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/20070322-george-orwell4.jpg)
16. “Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.” – Thomas Jefferson
17. “So what is government?… Very simply, it is an agency of coercion. Of course, there are other agencies of coercion — such as the Mafia. So to be more precise, government is the agency of coercion that has flags in front of its offices.” – Harry Browne
18. “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face–for ever.” – From George Orwell’s Novel, “Nineteen Eighty-Four” [image above]
19. “The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” – Cornelius Tacitus
20. “A wise prince will seek means by which his subjects will always and in every possible condition of things have need of his government, and then they will always be faithful to him.” – Niccolo Machiavelli, “The Prince”
Great quotes! I’m glad some people feel the same as me about politics!
Some really good quotes here…
I love it! Thomas Sowell and Dave Barry on the same list!
Great quotes.
On the subject of taxes, here’s a gem from Bill Clinton:
“I must be the only person in America that every time — I pay the maximum tax rates — every time I sign that tax form, I smile. I think they ought to audit me and everyone in my income group every year, because if I make a mistake, I actually think they can make some real money out of me.”
Awesome quotes!
Very nice list of quotes. Number 14 made me LOL.
what the hell? there’s an election in USA? are you sure?
Good list! These were new to me… personal favorites are number 7 and 19.
This is exactly why I vote libertarian
Rock- I vote for libertarian ideals, but I don’t see any great candidates this term- anyone I am missing?
Great quotes, there have been many of these ‘pithy’ quotes throughout the idiosyncrasy of politics.
Oh and I hope the intro was a joke, and you don’t REALLY think that the election of the Prime Minister of New Zealand is more important than the elections for the next president of the United States…
or am I the only dum-dum who didn’t get that it’s indeed a joke?
Brilliant list, with my favorites, Orwell and Mencken and Thomas Jefferson… wonderful. Especially great is number 12: “Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.” The Orwell quote, though, *is* taken somewhat out of context—this wasn’t Orwell’s actual view of the future–it was said by the character he created, O’Brien, who is speaking as a loyal tool of the State.
Though, admittedly, sadly…. it may nevertheless be accurate.
ha ha your a dum dum nananana
Okay, so it is a joke, obviously.
Sorry about that. I usually don’t ‘get’ jokes as unfunny as this one.
BURN!
Excellent list! How about
Aristophanes; “Under every rock lies a politician.”
Pierre Trudeau; “The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.”
Sir John A. MacDonald; “Anybody may support me when I am right. What I want is someone that will support me when I am wrong.”
Lester B. Pearson; “A great gulf, however, has been opened between man’s material advance and his social and moral progress, a gulf in which he may one day be lost if it is not closed or narrowed.”
(Sorry, had to squeak in the Canadian content, I wonder if Jamie can get some of our tax dollars because of it?)
For those of you interested and too young to know Lester B. Pearson was a famous Canadian Prime Minister. With a minority government (means he had to actually convince the majority of the house, his accomplishments were not a shoe in) he instituted universal health care, canada pension plan (for all working canadians), student loans, and a bunch of other good stuff.
And oh yeah, he was a decorated soldier in WWII, and He won the Nobel Peace Prize. Here’s a quote from the great Wiki
“for his role in defusing the Suez Crisis through the United Nations, Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The selection committee claimed that Pearson had “saved the world.” The United Nations Emergency Force was Pearson’s creation, and he is considered the father of the modern concept of peacekeeping.”
Why is the president of New Zealand a vitally important thing? Is that a country somewhere?
I have always loved Auguste Ledru-Rollin in Paris, 1848: “There go the people. I must follow them, I am their leader!”
Great list, can’t believe these people feel the same way about politics as me! and why is the the prime minister of New Zealand important? does he help control the number of kiwi’s or something?
I like #11
It likely that the next prime minister of NZ will be a woman, correct? (I’m not too sure of the state of NZ politics at the moment) Helen Clark and the Labour Party are still the preferred choice?
Yeah one day, but after the current bloke.
God, why is politics so needlessly complicated? I hate this planet.
Ask someone that cares.
1: Vote for me this November.
2. And if I do not win, JFrater can we borrow your Prime Minister for say, oh just 4 years or so?
3. We tried to borrow a monkey for the last 8 years and the zoo was all out. All they had left was a George Bush. The cost? Well, roughly, about a trillion dollar war, thousands of lives, our economy, being liked by most countries, and the souls of republicans. Yes sir, we got swindled.
So no more Bushes for this country. We’re settling for at least a mentally challenged rented monkey this time around or no dice.
Great list with some fab quotes.
Mom I like the additions you included.
I forgot who said this and looked it up. Turns out it’s another Churchill quote.
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter”
Winston Churchill
My favorite is # 8
Here are a few:
Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. – Charles De Gaulle
A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation. – J.F. Clarke
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. – Khrushchev
All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people. – James Garfield
“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.” – Khrushchev
That’s awesome, reminds me of the bridge to nowhere in Alaska that cost $320 million.
1984 was a great book.
Barack,
Gee, last time democrats had the Presidency and Congress we got the Jimmy Carter years. Do we really want to have that again??
I began using the term ‘Indepublocrat’ in college back in 1987 for one of my research papers… sometimes I wish I could start a real party that would take the ‘blood sucking scavengers’ out of politics.
I’m sorry, did I say that out loud?
Green,
Bob Barr is not my first choice (I’m still a Ron Paul guy), but I believe in his policies much more than I believe in McCain’s or Obama’s.
Republicans have failed us recently, and the Democrat’s ideals don’t work.
Steelman:
Gee, last time the REPUBLICANS had the Presidency and Congress, we HAD THE MOST TERRIBLE YEARS SINCE RICHARD NIXON–namely George W. Bush and his willing cohorts in the then-Republican controlled congress.
Do you really think you can scare everybody away from Obama by raising the spectre of Jimmy Carter? It won’t work, trust me.
Why do you think Ron Paul didn’t gather a bigger following? Here in Texas there are Ron Paul bumper stickers and t-shirts everywhere. His supporters are super motivated. And he has some original ideas. Do you think it’s because people who might have liked him were already on the Obama bandwagon?
Can you stay stagflation?
not sure who said it but…
The opposite of progress is congress
Clantargh:
First time I heard that was when I was a kid, and Nipsey Russell recited one of his poems on “To Tell the Truth” (so I imagine he originated it):
“Pro is the opposite of Con, as we have all seen…
But if Progress means ‘move forward,’
what does CONgress mean?”
But you may not even know who Nipsey Russell was… google him, I guess. I’m not even sure if he’s still alive. (black comic from the 60s and 70s known for always speaking in verse).
Steelman, rushfan, and other assorted kids here:
A) stagflation and the other miserable economic aspects of the 70s did NOT, regardless of conservative myth, originate with Jimmy Carter. His presidency certainly didn’t help matters and did little to fix it–but then neither, really, did the presidency of Ronald Reagan at first. At any rate, the economic woes of the 70s had their basis in the Viet Nam War… similarly to today’s situation vis a vis Iraq, the war had been a sharp drain on the economy and had stifled and dampened the economic situation at home. Remember, this was in the day of a much smaller American economy–the Dow Jones at the time was, I believe, in the low four figures. Nixon’s administration did little to address the situation, being A) encumbered by Nixon’s paranoia over being divested of the presidency by his democratic opponents and B) some bad economic decisions. The situation worsened under Gerald Ford, who also did little of a practical nature to address the problem. Carter simply continued the spiral.
The real problem was that the country overall, along with the Fed, did not understand nor know how to cope with the situation. The idea that was repeated over and over again was to try to legislate the country out of the problem–not simply with taxes but with various programs and “inflation czars” and whatnot–none of which worked (and this mistake was repeated by Nixon, Ford AND Carter, so you can’t lay it simply at the feet of the Democrats) I remember, when I was a boy, Gerald Ford’s “Whip Inflation Now” program–there were even buttons that said “WIN” on them, and you were supposed to wear them to show your support and enthusiasm, and it was hoped that alone would literally do something to bring the country out of the economic doldrums. Unbelievable, but true.
Of course none of these schemes ever worked. NOTHING changed until, really, 1979, when Paul Volcker, in the Fed, finally came in and decided to drastically lower interest rates. THAT spurred growth, but it took time, and for the first few years of the Reagan admin, we were in a deep recession… in fact it’s likely that Reagan would have been chucked out of office in 1984–I remember this distinctly–but luckily for him, things finally began to pick up in 1983, slowly, and along with Reagan’s rhetoric and skill at communication, this helped him to reelection in 84.
So let’s just keep historical truth straight, okay? Carter wasn’t to blame for the 70s, he was merely an enabler. The country, the Fed, and the political parties have long since learned from those mistakes… but unfortunately for us, new ones are constantly being invented, such as the recent Energy Loophole which allowed for all this unbridled speculation in the first place, which has brought us gas prices which have DOUBLED in only 2 years. And that, folks, is the fault of Republicans this time.
Great list, I had a feeling it would be based on politics.
Gore Vidal’s quote was my favorite.
Nipsey Russell is dead, he died in 2005 of Cancer I believe.
Here are a few:
“Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.”
-Otto von Bismarck
“In politics stupidity is not a handicap.
-Napoleon
“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”
-Thomas Paine
You forgot a good one,.. it’s from Milton Friedman…I think.
“Capitalism is the uneven distribution of wealth….socialism is the even distribution of poverty.”
Not bad, but you forgot what is perhaps the most famous tax-related quip in history!
“Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” – Ben Franklin
Kreachure: it is a joke – and a funny one at that! Laugh damn you! Oh – and for what it is worth, the NZ election is more important to me than the US ones because obviously it has more impact on my life – but I realize it is insignificant to the majority of readers here
Tempyra: it is unlikely that Helen Clark and the Labour party will win the next election – the latest poll has them at 31% and National at 52% – with a margin like that, National could govern alone just like the old FPP days. National are promising a referendum on whether to keep MMP too.
Guys – thanks for the extra ones you have come up with – some are brilliant indeed.
Yay for quoting Harry Browne (R.I.P.). I’d never heard that line of his before, though.
“LOL.”
Happy?
good time to ponder after reading all these quotes. pretty much we have learned nothing in the last 7000 thousand years if you are a creationist and millions if you are a evolutionist. we still can’t learn how to govern ourselves. even after having some of the greatest minds of the last 250 years being quoted here.
the economic woes of the 70s had their basis in the Viet Nam War
Randall – remember, though, that the 1970′s stagflation was not just a US phenomenon. But, more to the point, you are ignoring what is probably the most significant factor in all of this..the oil shock of the early 1970′s. The underlying cause being, of course, US policy in the Middle East (the consequence of the Arab-Israeli conflict); specifically, Arab nations waking up to the leverage that their oil could give them in world (ostensibly US) affairs.
Very nice! Why can’t we think like that any more?
JFrater
Sir Robert Muldoon (New Zealand Prime Minister 1975 -1984) came out with some of my favourite quotes from any politician working hard on relationships with his near neighbours.
“New Zealand was colonised initially by those Australians who had the initiative to escape”
“New Zealanders who emigrate to Australia do us a both a favour by raising the IQ of both countries.”
#11 Kreachure
Very obviuosly a dum dum
spart: yes – that last one is indeed a very well known quote – and still funny after all these years
Great list again, I like number 12 especially. G.W. makes me even more ashamed of it right now.
24 Barack Obama: If it’s a retarded monkey you’re looking for to run your country, then Helen’s your man!
Just to clear up the ‘man’ comment, see this pic of Helen Clark
Now tell me that she didn’t used to be a man once.
cool list =)
Slow day. Huh?
I guess I’ll comment again, very good list. Some very awesome quotes. Why can’t I think of sayings as great as these?
These are freakin amazing. I’m not gonna lie, JFrater, this site has to be my one true love. Sad, I know, but there it is. Well, this and beer. Mmm… Beer.
Jamie, Jamie, Jamie…
How naive of you to think that the NZ elections will have more of an impact on your life than the US elections. The US elections will have an impact on the whole world for the worse if the republicans stay in the office.
Go President Obama!
Oh and as for the quotes. Churchill was the master linguist.