The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
A politician thinks of the next election; the statesman thinks of the next generation
Palin was a political Hail Mary, a long bomb in the closing minutes of a game that John McCain and Co. were certain to lose. They didn't care if she had the policy or political or emotional capacity to serve as vice president, let alone president. They were willing to drive the country off a cliff, if that's what it took to win.
You can't ultimately dodge defeat by winning close elections.
Common sense is no match for political opportunism.
I know why elected officials want to spend money. It’s great. I can get a vote from you if I give you some money. OK but that doesn’t help your children. It just helps you.
When a party sheds it principles for victory, it will inevitably end up with neither.
I would rather be an opportunist and float than go to the bottom with my principles around my neck.
1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley
While you're trying to save your face, you're losing your ass.
The remedy is worse than the disease.
... the forces of power, particularly corporate power, are impatient with what is adequate for a coherent community. Because power gains so little from community in the short run, it does not hesitate to destroy community for the long run.
You can't learn too soon that the most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.
I could persuade a millionaire on a Friday to subsidize a revolution for Saturday out of which he would make a huge profit on Sunday even though he was certain to be executed on Monday.
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week? Or sell eternity to get a toy? For one grape who will the vine destroy?
I hate it when people call themselves 'entrepreneurs' when what they're really trying to do is launch a startup and then sell of go public, so they can cash in and move on. They're unwilling to do the work it takes to build a real company, which is the hardest work in business.
At Munich we sold the Czechs for a few months grace, but the disgrace will last as long as history.
Necessity never made a good bargain.
Every act of folly can be justified by the deed that preceded it.
To hazard much to get much has more of avarice than wisdom.
The opportunist thinks of me and today. The statesman thinks of us and tomorrow.
No pleasure is evil in itself; but the means by which certain pleasures are gained bring pains many times greater than the pleasures.
Gain at the expense of reputation is manifest loss.
There is no victory at bargain basement prices.
It's quite possible for an executive to hit her goal for the quarter by ignoring the future.
Action leads to Attention. that in the short-term releases Rewarding brain chemicals and in the long term improves reproductive success.
