Top 100 Political Thinking Quotes
#1. I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
#2. I prefer a positive view of freedom, drawing on another tradition of political thinking that goes all the way back to the ancient Greek polis.
David Blunkett
#3. Hatred is not contained in political thinking. Any hatred worked up against the public enemy is non-political, and always shows some weakness in the internal political situation.
Francis Parker Yockey
#4. By the time of my ninth birthday, I had become a bit of a socialist, as I am said by conservative colleagues to be to this day. I went on within the next few years to volunteer as an envelope stuffer for the American Labor Party, and my political thinking has not shifted measurably since that time.
Sherwin B. Nuland
#5. All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.
George Orwell
#6. Totalitarian rule marks the sharpest contrast imaginable with political rule, and ideological thinking is an explicit and direct challenge to political thinking.
Bernard Crick
#7. The one thing that's always been the center of my political thinking - and it goes back to when I was 19 and editor of my college paper - is an abhorrence of the extreme.
Charles Krauthammer
#8. In the history of political thinking, there has been always a polar conflict between ethical and the ruthless realistic thoughts of men in general where every greater thought brings in faster understanding yielding an exciting result so fast.
Auliq Ice
#9. I cannot doubt that women will line up, like the men elected, with the groups whose political thinking and convictions are in accord with their own political convictions.
Edith Rogers
#10. However, it was the great 18th century social philosophers John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau who brought the concept of a social contract between citizens and governments sharply into political thinking, paving the way for popular democracy and constitutional republicanism.
Simon Mainwaring
#11. I think Hillary Clinton is a militarist. She is a political coward. The interesting thing about Hilary Clinton, like Bill Clinton dodging the draft, he never touched the Pentagon - she is in the same position.
Ralph Nader
#12. Since 1948 I have spent every single day thinking how the economic and political worlds have changed.
Alan Greenspan
#13. Design is both a political and cultural force for change, although most designers choose not to think about the power it has.
Jonathan Barnbrook
#14. I think in this country [UK] we could do with rather less political correctness and more straight talking across the board.
Philip Davies
#15. The time to be political is not when you have parties and carnivals, it's kind of a show, the election. It affects something but not that much. And focusing all the attention on it is I think a mistake.
Noam Chomsky
#16. I do think students in public school (and private) should be required to study the Bible. As a matter of pure education, it's shocking that we [the americans] are not compelled to learn the book, which is the source of our language, our common stories, our political structure, our conflicts.
David Plotz
#17. I think it's one thing to be part of a very important group called the Senate of the United States and cast a vote. You're one of 100. I think it says even more to be a governor, where you ultimately have that political responsibility and accountability to succeed.
Tom Ridge
#18. One of the things that ultimately led me to leave mathematics and go into political science was thinking I could prevent nuclear war.
Paul Wolfowitz
#19. I guess nobody assumes anybody is a libertarian. It's a more complex political discussion than most people are used to, to explain why you think the way you do about public education or drug laws, and why it's not as simple as being for or against something.
Dave Barry
#20. What we've also got to think about is the limitations of military power. Maybe it's time to focus on the economic issues, and most of all the political issues, because the political failure in Iraq right now is almost worse than the military failure. And the two are intertwined.
Paul Rieckhoff
#21. I think the time is right for organizing and to give Blacks more political - the progressive Blacks, you have to make a distinction - participation, more Blacks in more authoritative positions, in more electoral political positions. But we want the right ones.
Huey Newton
#22. The Night Manager doesn't exist in the post-Cold war universe, it exists much more in the modern world, I think. There is more action. The bad guys don't have particularly political or national-political affiliations.
Tom Hiddleston
#23. When I think of Spirit, I think of that mysterious force that pulls us into being, into becoming, into love. That can get political rather quickly.
Michael Gungor
#24. Cultural stupidity accounts for virtually every aspect of Sarah Palin, both as a person and a political icon. Which, come to think of it, may be a pretty good reason not to misunderstimate her.
Joe Bageant
#25. No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States and compounding the American people into one common mass.
John Marshall
#26. A psychopath can tell what you're thinking but what they don't do is feel what you feel. These are people without a conscience.
Robert D. Hare
#27. One difference with the political writings, whether about feminism or class, is that the intent is to change how people think of a certain political reality; whereas with cultural criticism, the goal is to illuminate something that is already there.
Bell Hooks
#28. I am a political animal, because for God's sakes I think "We The People" is a job. I think experienced self government demands on all levels - intellectual, moral, historical, and spiritual level. We are supposed to be engaged and give directions to our elected employees.
Ted Nugent
#29. I don't think it's bribery; I think it's extortion. Bribery, you know, is when the person that's giving the money does it voluntarily. What it is in Washington is extortion because they all ask for the money.
John McCain
#30. Do you thinking not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?
Robert Redford from the 1975 movie Three Days of the Condor
James Grady
#31. How do you think the transition from the present situation to community of Property is to be effected? The first, fundamental condition for the introduction of community of property is the political liberation of the proletariat through a democratic constitution.
Friedrich Engels
#32. I can't think in terms of journalism without thinking in terms of political ends. Unless there's been a reaction, there's been no journalism. It's cause and effect.
Hunter S. Thompson
#33. To change a political system, the majority of the thinking citizens must unite, speak with one voice and stand firm like one leg.
Ahmed Padia Binkatabana
#34. I think political science is bad at prediction. We don't gaze into a crystal ball. I do not believe that we predict things.
Ian Bremmer
#35. I am possibly thinking about doing an Internet show in the future that will highlight political organizations that I seek out to let people know about them, volunteer opportunities, and donation opportunities.
Kathleen Hanna
#36. This tough-love, winner-take-all narrative dominating policymaking is far too limited a way to think about how a complex, modern, diverse economy like ours expands and thrives. The strongest periods of economic growth in the 20th century were also times when incomes rose across the board.
John Podesta
#37. I'm all for raw milk. I think you should make your own choice on whether you drink raw milk or not.
Ron Paul
#38. The worst thing you want is a willy-nilly judge who is swayed by the political whims of the era or the time. What you want is a judge who is thinking about what he or she is doing and is thinking about it in a principled way.
Sonia Sotomayor
#39. It is only the novice in political economy who thinks it is the duty of government to make its citizens happy - government has no such office.
Walt Whitman
#40. I think it's always been an arrangement that had political objectives and goals, which is fine. Get married for whatever reason you want, as far as I'm concerned.
Rush Limbaugh
#41. In terms of political things, I think it's important to be more direct in terms of political statements. I think in terms of philosophical and things that you plant things and see them grow lyrically or musically, it's okay to be subtle.
Serj Tankian
#42. More people telling stories leads to more interesting perspectives in this world. I often think we wouldn't get to these political impasses if we had balance in storytelling.
Reese Witherspoon
#43. Economists think the poor need them to tell them that they are poor.
Peter Drucker
#44. From my intimate discussions with President Obama, it is evident that India figures significantly in American geo-political, economic and strategic thinking. India is the largest democracy in the world.
Narendra Modi
#45. I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.
Elia Kazan
#46. The impediment to scientific thinking is not, I think, the difficulty of the subject. Complex intellectual feats have been mainstays even of oppressed cultures. Shamans, magicians and theologians are highly skilled in their intricate and arcane arts. No, the impediment is political and hierarchical.
Carl Sagan
#47. I think the implications for the rise of China are huge in terms of the political landscape, economic balance, de-velopment thinking, and the environment.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati
#48. I would also hope that no one would think about trying to amend the constitution as a political strategy,
Mary Cheney
#49. The Universal Declaration ... as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations ... it not only crystallizes the political thought of our times on these matters, but it has also influenced the thinking of legislators all over the world.
Dag Hammarskjold
#50. I don't remember debates. I don't think we spent a lot of time debating it. Maybe we did, but I don't remember.
George W. Bush
#51. Significant and seemingly impossible social and political change happens more often than we think, and it happens more rapidly than we realize. Even the most momentous change is always possible if one finds the right way to make it happen.
Glenn Greenwald
#52. Anarchists know that a long period of education must precede any great fundamental change in society, hence they do not believe in vote begging, nor political campaigns, but rather in the development of self-thinking individuals.
Lucy Parsons
#53. This magical thinking, this idea that human and personal progress is somehow inevitable, leads to political passivity. ... It has turned whole nations, such as the United States, into self-consuming machines of death.
Chris Hedges
#54. It is hard to think of anything which more tragically and clearly exemplifies the phenomenon of good political intentions achieving the precise opposite of their aim.
A. N. Wilson
#55. I make a film - and once I've made it, everyone comes along and says 'Ah! This is a film that's political, or social', or whatever. But I'm not telling the story that they see. I made a film, told a story, but I wasn't thinking about exactly what it all meant.
Dario Argento
#56. A mother was thinking of how to keep her naughty child in line she tried using the boogey man it didn't work ... she thought and thought then said "the Politician is going to get you" and he was never naughty again
Rassool Jibraeel Snyman
#57. I think there is no doubt that the advent of 24/7 news channels, which are voracious in their demand for constant new content, has accelerated the political process. The rise of social media, in addition to talkback, I think has intensified the political process.
Tony Abbott
#58. When people align around shared political, social, economic or environmental values, and take collective action, thinking and behavior that compromises the lives of millions of people around the world can truly change.
Simon Mainwaring
#59. I've never heard of a situation where, because somebody had a particular political belief, they didn't get a part. I think it's a bit of a myth.
Kevin Spacey
#60. When you have strong views about how to approach thinking about the law, then that view is going to lead to certain results in certain situations. And so people seem to think this predictability is based on some kind of partisan political view. But it's not.
Sonia Sotomayor
#61. The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.
John Adams
#62. I don't think that what I'm doing [political cartooning] is necessarily left versus right. What I'm addressing is top versus bottom. If I'm not spending a lot of time making fun of the more extreme elements of the Green Party, it's because what I do is to critique power.
Tom Tomorrow
#63. We think we can't survive without deficit spending - but we soon won't be able to survive with deficit spending, either.
Tony Blankley
#64. If I was to interrupt this article every few sentences, asking you whether or not I was making a good impression on you, I hope and believe that you would think I was a servile jerk. Yet this is what our politicians are doing in every speech.
Christopher Hitchens
#65. I'm very depressed how in this country you can be told "That's offensive" as though those two words constitute an argument.
Christopher Hitchens
#66. We've had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places. And for a variety of political reasons we have sustained this war against Israel now since the 1940's, and I think it's tragic,
Newt Gingrich
#67. When it comes to immigration reform, now is the time ... I've never seen a better political environment ... I'm not doing immigration reform to solve the Republican Party's political problem. I'm trying to save our nation from, I think, a shortage of labor and a catastrophic broken system.
Lindsey Graham
#68. I think direct political action, civil disobedience, in particular, is something to be taken very seriously.
Terry Tempest Williams
#69. I'm a spiritual musician, I think there has been enough political musicians and I think everything that can be said has been said about political, social things, you know, and there's still some more to be said but not much.
Ziggy Marley
#70. Ultimately, I think the United States is a pretty awesome country but it very plausibly would have been even awesomer had English and American political leaders in the late 18th century been farsighted enough to find compromises that would have held the empire together.
Matthew Yglesias
#71. The term faith-based is nothing more than an attempt to slip religion past you when you're not thinking; which is the way religion is always slipped past you. It deprives you of choice; choice being another word the political-speech manipulators find extremely useful.
George Carlin
#72. A politician can do what he thinks is right, he just has to be sophisticated in how he goes about it. Those who seek a president who 'will disregard the polls and just lead,' ask for the political equivalent of 'The Charge of the Light Brigade.'
Dick Morris
#73. I don't think you could find any person in political life today who has been subjected to more attacks and had more money spent against her by special interests, among whom you have named a few, than I.
Hillary Clinton
#74. As I think about anyone or anything
whether history or literature or my father or political organizations or a poem or a film
as I seek to evaluate the potentiality, the life-supportive commitment and possibilities of anyone or any thing, the decisive question is always where is the love?
June Jordan
#75. I think political correctness really does help us when it serves us but it doesn't help us when it silences us.
Margaret Cho
#76. People respond to political characters in archetypal ways. A fun game is to think of a politician and ask, "Which god is that? Are they like Aries? Are they like Athena?"
Zephyr Teachout
#77. I think a lot of bad things have happened in the name of the church and in the name of Christ and therefore I shy away from church.
John Lennon
#78. When circumstances feel as if they are turning surreal, like the current political situation. We can be guaranteed, our intuition will lead the way to the truth, as long as we don't live in a world of wishful thinking.
Anita B. Sulser PhD
#79. I do not want to end up with an American style of politics, with us going out there beating our chest about our faith. Politics and religion - it is not that they do not have a lot in common, but if [religion] ends up being used in the political process, I think that is a bit unhealthy.
Tony Blair
#80. All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
#81. Corporate polluters, their phony think tanks and political toadies like to marginalize environmentalists as tree huggers, or radicals. But there is nothing radical about clean air or water.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
#82. We can be seduced ... by powerful political groups that promise more wealth and lower taxes. Those with power can use clever, psychological tricks and play upon our weaknesses and brokenness in order to attract us to their way of thinking. We can be manipulated into illusion.
Jean Vanier
#83. Leadership is a dynamic tension between where a politician thinks his country must go and where his voters want it to go.
Dick Morris
#84. Being rational - along with being clear and honest - are important if we are to create the needed shift in fundamental thinking necessary to make it possible to pull this world back from the brink of multiple disasters on ecological, cultural, political, and economic fronts.
Robert Jensen
#85. What we want to see is the development of human rights and greater democracy, not just because it is our system but because we think that's the best way that economic and political development go hand in hand.
Tony Blair
#86. I think the United States and its British attack dog are not taken seriously anywhere in the world and can play no role in helping a political solution.
Tariq Ali
#87. I believe that a writer has to tell what they think is the truth in a human experience. The truth of the human experience cannot escape the political.
Walter Mosley
#88. If he's - the inference is that somehow he thinks slavery is a - is a noble institution I would - I would strongly reject that assumption - that John Ashcroft is a openminded, inclusive person.
George W. Bush
#89. I grew up at a time where I think most people had a social and political conscience. Some of the biggest changes in our country's political history happened at the time I was growing up, so I was raised to be a part of those things and to participate and I will continue to do that as much as I can.
George Clooney
#90. What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think vulcanize society. So I don't know how that fits into what everybody else is saying, their relative positions, but that's my position.
George W. Bush
#91. I think I was a militant smoker, and I felt hemmed in by a wall of political correctness and I think I purposely and militantly put the smoking scenes in the movies.
Chris Hayes
#92. When you think about a presidential candidate spending all of his or her time talking to that tiny, tiny fraction of us who have the capacity to fund political elections, it's obvious why the perspective of government is skewed relative to what most Americans care about.
Lawrence Lessig
#93. I want you to know that farmers are not going to be secondary thoughts to a Bush administration. They will be in the forethought of our thinking.
George W. Bush
#95. Why, to hear Betsy Bobbet talk about wimmin's throwin' their modesty away, you would think if they ever went to the political pole, they would have to take their dignity and modesty and throw 'em against the pole, and go without any all the rest of their lives.
Marietta Holley
#96. What I've always seen in writers and artists is the courage it takes to make an original work of art. I think the real risks in literature are linguistic and intellectual, and I hope we can highlight those, as well as political courage.
Salman Rushdie
#97. I did it for political, moral reasons, thinking that I was making this great sacrifice, but it was absolutely necessary; I was not going to contribute to the violence in the world anymore.
Alicia Silverstone
#98. All ran to meet their chains thinking they secured their freedom, for although they had enough reason to feel the advantages of political establishment, they did not have enough experience to foresee its dangers.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
#99. I think the political process has degenerated into name-calling and extremism, and I think that that's unfortunate.
Bill Bradley
#100. [J]ust from a political perspective, do you think the president of the United States going into re-election wants gas prices to go up higher? ... Look, here's the bottom line with respect to gas prices: I want gas prices lower because they hurt families.
Barack Obama
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