Gordon Brown Quotes

My fate is to be President of the Republic - or leader of the opposition.

I never believed that surrendering the executive power should be a condition of getting the second term. The second term should stand on its own feet.

I have popular support.

To win power anywhere you have to convince people that you can do something for them.

Power without principle is barren, but principle without power is futile. This is a party of government, and I will lead it as a party of government.

I am getting frustrated by the fact that we have been out of office for eight years. I desperately want to lead the Conservative Party to make quicker progress back into power.

Politics is about winning. If you don't win, you don't get to put your principles into practice. Therefore, find a way to win, or sit the battle out.

A political ideology is a very handy thing to have. It’s a real time saver because it tells you what you think about things you know nothing about.

Politicians trim and tack in their quest for power, but they do so in order to get the wind of votes in their sails.

The Communist Party and the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are the same in some ways ... To stay in power you've got to give people a good life and improve the economy.

The Executive Branch, when they put the point on the spear, can get things done.

You can’t govern a country on charisma.

Principles aren't something you hear much from politicians these days. Have you noticed? Right across the board, leaders, whatever the political coloring, avoid talking about laws; they avoid talking about principles. They talk about 'our values.' But values can change, and all our packets of 'values' seem to be getting smaller.

In order to govern, you have to win.

Any person should have enough sense to know that a PM should have public support. Numbers should be with them.

Cynics who say power is all that counts in politics forget that power without ideas is just improvisation.

Progressivism, liberalism, or whatever you want to call it has become an ideology of power. So long as liberals hold it, principles don't matter.

He who becomes a Prince through the favour of the people should always keep on good terms with them; which it is easy for him to do, since all they ask is not to be oppressed

One of the things that you learn, having been in this [President's] office for four years, is the old adage of Abraham Lincoln's. That with public opinion there's nothing you can't do and without public opinion there's very little you can get done.

You know what kind of person it takes to run for President? Not normal. They could start out okay, but by the time they reach that level they've sold their soul to the devil so many times and stomped the guts out of enough people that they are definitely not like you and me, not even close.

Sarah Palin has managed to use her failed vice presidential run to put herself in a position of power and influence. Joe Biden won the race and he hasn't been able to put himself in a position of power and influence.

Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments.

It's a sad thing about politics that most people get power too late, in that they differ from ladies of easy virtue who get their pleasures too early.

In order to obtain and hold power, a man must love it.

Yahya Khan wasn't interested in the government of the country, he was interested in power for its own sake and nothing else.