Policy, Policy Making Quotes

Our forest policy is not to preserve forests because they are beautiful—though that is a good in itself—not to preserve them because they are refuges for wild creatures of the wilderness—though that is a good in itself—but rather to conserve them in order to guarantee a steady and continuous supply of timber, grass, and above all, water.

It is much easier to start something than to finish it.

Optimism is cowardice.

Patience is also a form of action.

Naturally the common people don't want war ... but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

If socialists understood economics, they wouldn't be socialist.

What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

In history, nothing happens by accident. If it happened, you can bet someone planned it.

It is better to be approximately right than to be precisely wrong.

No one starts a war—or rather, no one in his senses ought to do so—without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war, and how he intends to conduct it.

Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Politics is about making institutions work somewhat better, helping people’s lives at the margins

Some degree of abuse is inseparable from the proper use of every thing; and in no instance is this more true than in that of the press. It has accordingly been decided, by the practice of the states, that it is better to leave a few of its noxious branches to their luxuriant growth, than, by pruning them away, to injure the vigor of those yielding the proper fruits. And can the wisdom of this policy be doubted by any one who reflects that to the press alone, checkered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression?

The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.

… the state, the government, the laws must not in any way concern themselves with schooling or education. Public funds must not be used for such purposes. The rearing and instruction of youth must be left entirely to parents and to private associations and institutions…. Continued adherence to a policy of compulsory education is utterly incompatible with efforts to establish lasting peace.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Unintended Consequences

Politics is the art of the possible.

Politics is who gets what, when, how.

I am an Irishman second: I am a Catholic first…. If the [Roman Catholic] hierarchy give me any direction with regard to Catholic social teaching or Catholic moral teaching, I accept without qualification in all respects the reaching of the hierarchy and the church to which I belong.

If Iran has a policy of detaining dual nationals as a tool of diplomatic leverage, then there will be consequences for Iran. We will not let them get away with it scot-free. They have to understand this is not a sustainable situation.

The policy of repression of ideas cannot work and has never worked.