Oscar Arias Quotes

Every President wants to do right.

In the end, Ted Kennedy was a politician, plain and simple. Yet he embodied how politics and public service can be successfully intertwined. You can't be a good public servant without being a good politician. Kennedy was both.

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years.

Now I know what a statesman is; he's a dead politician. We need more statesmen.

The statesman's duty is to bridge the gap between his nation's experience and his vision.

A politician thinks of the next election; the statesman thinks of the next generation

As a politician, I worked very, very hard in order to maintain the unity of our country. That was my aim.

I admire politicians. It is a really tough assignment, and I would fall at the first fence.

The President of the United States should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best who serves his country best.

I realized that becoming a doctor, I can only help a small community. But by becoming a politician, I can help my whole country.

The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks.

I have tremendous admiration for everyone who enters the political arena so long as their goal is to do what they believe is right for the people of New York.

You don’t become a statesman unless you are first a good politician.

A disposition to preserve and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.

The difference between a politician and a statesman is: a politician thinks of the next election and a statesman thinks of the next generation.

The distinction between a statesman and a politician is that the former imposes his will and his ideas on his environment while the latter adopts himself to it.

I have seen in the Halls of Congress more idealism, more humaneness, more compassion, more profiles of courage than in any other institution that I have ever known.

Of all our public men of today he stands first in my reverence & admiration, & the next one stands two-hundred-&-twenty-fifth. He is the only statesman we have now. ... Cleveland drunk is a more valuable asset to this country than the whole batch of the rest of our public men sober. He is high-minded; all his impulses are great & pure & fine. I wish we had another of this sort.

On healthcare, climate change, nuclear disarmament, gun control and countless other issues, President Obama consistently made difficult choices and put the national interest over his own political interest to do what was right. All the while, he resisted the politics of cynicism in a system that too often encourages it.

A politician before he can become a statesman has to remain in office long enough.

But a good patriot, and a true politician, always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his country. A disposition, to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman. Everything else is vulgar in the conception, perilous in the execution.

The best state is that in which bad men are not allowed to hold office, and good men are not allowed to refuse office.

The difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician thinks about the next election while the statesman think about the next generation

My policy has always been to say what I believe to be in the best interest of the American people and hope the voters agree, or at least will respect my honesty.

We can score political points. We can try to advance some important initiatives. But at some point, it takes sober-minded, responsible conservative leaders to identify when you've pushed as far as you can and to have the courage to go back and face the electorate and explain to them why you voted the way you did.