Politicians

"The truly skillful politician is one who, when he comes to a fork in the road, goes both ways."
        --Marco A. Almazan

"Three groups spend other people's money: children, thieves and politicians. All three need parental supervision."
        --Dick Armey

"Politicians are like ships: noisiest when lost in a fog."
        --Bennett Cerf

"I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents."
        --Winston Churchill

"No country is immune to people who run [for high public office] making extreme statements trying to divide people, trying to, in effect, play on both the economic frustrations and the social and moral frustrations that people feel in all countries where there is both economic stagnation and social disintegration. People everywhere yearn for a certain sense of order and discipline and hopefulness about the daily conditions of life. And when those things are under stress, every political system will be vulnerable to people who try to play on fears and to divide people."
        --Bill Clinton, press conference in Rome, 06/02/94

"Nothing brings out the lower traits of human nature like office seeking."
        --Rutherford B. Hayes

"Offices are as acceptable here as elsewhere, and whenever a man has cast a longing eye on them, a rottenness begins in his conduct."
        --Thomas Jefferson

"A politician normally prospers under democracy in proportion ... as he excels in the invention of imaginary perils and imaginary defenses against them."
        --H. L. Mencken, 1918

"The typical politician is not only a rascal but also a jackass, so he greatly values the puerile notoriety and adulation that sensible men try to avoid."
        --H. L. Mencken

"Beware of all politicians at all times, but beware of them most sharply when they talk of reforming and improving the constitution."
        --H. L. Mencken

"Telling politicians to 'vote their conscience' is like telling cannibals to eat tofu and alfalfa sprouts."
        --James Pinkerton

"Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel."
        --John Quinton

"Politics is the best show in America. I love animals and I love politicians and I love to watch both of 'em play either back home in their native state or after they have been captured and sent to the zoo or to Washington."
        --Will Rogers

"Politicians do not have an easy life. Somebody is always interrupting it with an election."
        --Will Rogers

"Alexander Hamilton kinder got our system going. He was the man that originated the put and take system into our National Treasury. The Taxpayers put it in and the Politicians take it out."
        --Will Rogers

"A politician is just like a pickpocket; it's almost impossible to get him to reform."
        --Will Rogers

"Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke."
        --Will Rogers

"To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power."
        --Lucius Anneaus Seneca

"A politician...one that would circumvent God."
        --William Shakespeare

"Men desire to have some share of the management of public affairs chiefly on account of the importance which it gives them."
        --Adam Smith

"When politicians declare religious arguments out of bounds, they not only condemn discourse to a level of stunning superficiality. They wage war on all faiths. And let's face it, there's nothing more dangerous or extreme than a politician determined to step in and take the place of God."
        --Tony Snow

"If a politician had a coat of arms, it would probably be a weasel on a background of waffles and mush."
        --Thomas Sowell

"Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason."
        --Unknown