John G. Diefenbaker Quotes

Our boys [the communists] not only attended all the union educational classes … but also took lessons in speaking from Party experts. We were also trained in the fine points of parliamentary trickery … We raised points of order, points of information, divisions of the house, objection to consideration of the question, amendments to amendments, and appeals from the decision of the chair in endless and swift succession.

Well, how do I know that they don't know the answer unless I ask?

There are little games that go on in politics.

If you're a politician, you can see there might be times when, to secure the greater good, you have to take a backwards step. That is a matter of tactics.

I'm absolutely fine with the rough and tumble of politics.

I'm not into political gamesmanship.

In politics things change, in politics timing is important, and in politics, how I move, I don't tell you.

While President Obama assumes that at their core the Republican leadership team is just trying to do what's best for America, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner assume that the president is cynically trying to secure his own reelection, power, and legacy.

You always hear that politics is a function of timing and pacing.

Even the most ardent Obama supporter can't, in good conscience or sound mental state, argue that President Obama has changed the way Washington works. He's just played the game a little better, if you're being charitable on how you keep score on that count.

I used to play against a high school football team that always used to run the single wing. And eventually, other teams figured out that they ran the single wing. And so they prepared for it. The Democrats are stuck running the single wing.

In politics, you make use of every opportunity.

I don't think [Donald] Trump was playing rope-a-dope. He probably said, "Look, I've done these. How many debates did we do in the primaries? I know what's happening."

Politics is not about schmoozing, it's about boxing. And you have to enter the arena; you have to come close enough that your face would ready the face of the other guy; and the price is that he can reach your face.

A true master of politics is able to calculate, down to the smallest fraction, the advantages to which he may put his very faults.

Abbott's Admonitions: (1) If you have to ask, you're not entitled to know. (2) If you don't like the answer, you shouldn't have asked the question.

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi go to the White House for dinner, and the immediate belief they had is, "Oh, they're gonna smoke Donald Trump. This is not even a fair fight. Trump doesn't even know what's coming."

Spin is overrated. It is strategy, not spin, that wins elections.

The only tool the Democrats have is in the Senate, and it's the filibuster.

Politics is a dirty business, but if you do not do politics, politics will be done to you.

Politics is a fascinating game, because politics is government. It is the art of government.

I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted. I have a lot more to drink. For that reason, the political numbers game will be played. I know the rules of their game now and how to play it.

Disloyalty is the secret weapon of the Tory Party.

Professional politicians like to talk about the value of experience in government. Nuts! The only experience you gain in politics is how to be political.

It's not enough to have the right answers. You have to have the right questions.