Michael Oppenheimer Quotes

Our [politicians] responsibility is to be sure that we utilize the best science.

What’s been going on for years is political science, not good science in the environmental area.

Politics is the science of urgencies.

There is need for more science in politics and less politics in science.

To my knowledge, there's never been a scientist in the U.S. Senate.

Politics is the science of who gets what, when, and why.

Government is not an exact science.

For the politician the goal is always to be in the government.... Everything is about the struggle for office. The purpose of power, the problem to solve, is forgotten.

Politics is who gets what, when, how.

The science is clear. The economics is clear. As usual, the politics is the problem.

Argue as you please, you are nowhere, that grand old man, the Prime Minister, insists on the other thing.

The government needs good science, and I’m not willing to abdicate the role of advising the Administration and Congress on [science] policy.

Scientific concepts sometimes elude the vast majority of elected officials.

Politics and war are remarkably similar situations.

No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.

When men organize themselves into groups, and they make rules based on common or self-interest, it's always tangled and political.

Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.

Clashes of values and the struggle for primacy constitute a constant in human history that accounts for that other constant - conflict and war.

You do the policy, I'll do the politics.

Politicians always criticize each other in different ways.

Every policy is shaped by two forces: background analysis and foreground politics. The political forces are loud, self-serving and, in the case of energy policy, well known.

The influence of a science adviser is only as good as ears open to that science advice.

I think people are tired of politicians trying to poke each other in the eye.

Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards.

What most people don't realize is that dams and other structures are not permanent fixtures on the landscape. They are there because we made a political decision to build them. They didn't get there by accident.