Political Wisdom Quotes

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people in order to betray them.

Study history. Study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils - no, nor the human race, as I believe - and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day.

Truth telling in politics is the mark of an inexperienced politician.

Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized--the question involuntarily arises--to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.

The ability to change one's views without losing one's seat is the mark of a great politician.

Patriotism must be faithful as well as fervent; statesmanship must be wise as well as fearless not the statesmanship which will command the applause of the hour, but the judgment of posterity.

Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.

Whatever the immediate gains and losses, the dangers to our safety arising from political suppression are always greater than the dangers to the safety resulting from political freedom. Suppression is always foolish. Freedom is always wise.

I think it's true that Mike Pence, having been a politician for much longer than President Trump, certainly has a measured way of answering questions.

Talent is really important in politics, but experience is also really important.

What bitter anguish would not the people of Athens have often escaped if their government had contained so provident a safeguard against tyranny of their own passions? Popular liberty might then have escaped the indelible reproach of decreeing to the same citizens the hemlock on one day and statutes the next.

I believe we are going to have to prepare ourselves for the difficult and patient task of outgrowing rigid and intransigent nationalism, and work slowly towards a world federation of peaceful nations. How will this be possible? Don't ask me. I don't know. But unless we develop a moral, spiritual, and political wisdom that is proportionate to our technological skill, our skill may end us.

Mankind will never see an end of trouble until... lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power... become lovers of wisdom

Having studied politics doesn't necessarily give you political nous.

I've been described as a grizzled political veteran.

Why, this fellow [Dwight D. Eisenhower] don't know any more about politics than a pig knows about Sunday.

We forget that the most successful statesmen have been professionals. Lincoln was a professional politician.

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

There can be no wise politics without thought beforehand.

The great axioms of political science are deduced from the knowledge of the true political interests of all States: in these general interests lies the security for their existence, while the individual interests,—to which the daily or transitory political movements occasionally lend a great importance, and the promotion of which constitutes political wisdom in the eyes of a restless and short-sighted policy,—possess only a relative and secondary worth.

There is a reason why George Washington is always one of the top three presidents, and it's not because of his prowess as a military leader; it's not because of the incredible innovations in policy that he introduced. It's because he knew when it was time to go.

Democracy, loudly upheld as a cure for much of the ailing world, has proved no guarantor of political wisdom, even if it remains the least bad form of government.