Political Cunning Quotes

If we had a populist president who didn't alienate so many persuadable voters, who took full advantage of a strong economy, and who had the political cunning displayed by Modi or Benjamin Netanyahu or Viktor Orban, the liberal belief in a hidden left-of-center mandate might be exposed as a fond delusion.

The devil knew what he did when he made men politic; he crossed himself by it.

I've had great pleasure meeting the likes of Newt Gingrich and having a chat with the fellow on a staircase. I found him completely dishonest and totally likeable, because he doesn't care! He knows what a politician is, and he's a perfect embodiment of one.

Many senators have developed a canny sense of what will play best for the audience.

In a society like ours, politics is improvisation. To the artful dodger rather than the true believer goes the prize.

To say that Jimmy Carter does not understand politics or is not a good politician denies the phenomenon by which he got to the White House. He is without question the best politician, when he's working at it, of anybody I have ever seen.

The fact that Hitler was a political genius unmasks the nature of politics in general as no other fact can.

Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path.

The high-minded definition of politics is: 'the art or science of government; the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy.' It is only when you keep reading in Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary that you get closer to the truth: 'political activities characterized by artful and often dishonest practices'.

The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.

Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.

Every Country hath its Machiavel.

… the most sophisticated politician in the country … familiar with every subterranean channel of politics … the most cunning in the devious ways of politics … the most artful politician in the tricks of the craft

Politicians pretend not to be smart.

There's a point, you know, where treachery is so complete and unashamed that it becomes statesmanship.

I knew Saleh well, having interviewed and met with him several times. He was a professional Machiavelli, fluent in all forms for political maneuvering.

Statesman are suspected of plotting against mankind, rather than consulting their interests, and are esteemed more crafty than learned.

George Bush and his gang imagine they are being political geniuses.

It is not true that Trump is nobody's fool. He is the GOP's.

The right hon. Gentleman [Sir Robert Peel] caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes.

That was the year the British decided to get out and sell everything. So I immediately held an election. I knew the people will be dead scared. And I won my bet big-time. The gullible fools!

Crafty politician that he is, Obama was smart enough to set low enough standards for his administration to claim 'victory' by the summer of 2011 or so.