Governing Quotes

Politics. The art of governing mankind by deceiving them.

Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard.

For the White House, victories beget victories and loses beget losses.

With words we govern men.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

With bad laws and good civil servants it's still possible to govern. But with bad civil servants even the best laws can't help.

The Republicans have received a clear mandate to govern the country in the interest of business expansion.

If the people be governors, who shall be governed?

Syria is a difficult country to govern. Fifty percent of the Syrians consider themselves national leaders, 25 percent think they are prophets, and ten percent imagine that they are God.

I choose to bring people together. I choose to seek compromise.

Do you know, I have often thought that I am the cleverest woman who ever lived and that others cannot compare with me. Although I have heard much about Queen Victoria ... still I don't think her life is half as interesting and eventful as mine. Now look at me, I have 400 million people all dependent on my judgment.

All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.

Governing is about selecting.

Debates measure abilities you don't need to govern, like glibness. To govern you should be thoughtful, not glib. A debater has a sense of humor, but what's it got to do with governing? The ability to think on your feet. You make a budget sitting on your tush.

Democrats are very good at governing. When it comes to messaging, I'm not too sure about.

I did not love politics. As a matter of fact, I hated politics. I loved governing which is … a different thing.

Countries are very reluctant to impose short term pain for long term gain.

In campaigning, you want to slay your opponent. In governing, you want to make love to your opponent.

... the inherent conflict and disconnect between campaigning (promising people all that they can have) and governing (explaining to people why they won’t get it).

What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious.

What people do who go into politics I can't think; it drives me almost mad to see mismanagement over only a few hundred acres.

My goal was to do the best job I could in governing the state of Wisconsin, in some cases making very tough decisions to have to bring our spending in line with the resources we had at the state level.

I'm here to govern for everybody and I hope that people judge me on my merits and what I can do.

The people are difficult to govern: It is because those in authority are too fond of action [change].

To govern Italy is not only impossible, it is useless.