Politics

Politics                                                                       [457 - 1691]

Politics is not the art of the possible. Its task is to choose between the impossible and the unpleasant.

Politics is the art of preventing people from getting involved in matters that concern them.

Practical politics is often the ability to ignore facts.

You have to let people believe they have influence. The main thing is not to let them have it.

In politics as in love, the retreat can become victory.

You can succeed in politics by adapting or by giving in.

In politics there are moments when we just have to be and lose.

Nothing is as good in politics as a short memory.

When something ceases to be controversial, it is no longer interesting.

Principle and reality are like two ladies, who constantly scratch each other.

The noble ability to lose face may one day save humanity.

Politics without morality will soon become opportunism.

The difference between democracy and people's democracy was small, just like the difference between a jacket and a straitjacket.

Freedom is desired by the strong. Equality is desired by the weak. Not many people care about brotherhood.

There will be no peace on earth until patriotism and the worship of one's own religion has been eradicated from human societies.

Politician

Idealism is a noble garment that the gentlemen of politics pull over their hunger for power.

When a politician's honesty is emphasized too clearly, his intelligence is doubted.

A democrat is a person who suffers from the prejudice that he wants to listen to his opponents.

The most successful politician is the one who says most often and loudest what most of us think.

A politician thinks about the next election, a statesman about the next generation.

A politician divides people into two categories: tools and enemies.

Man does not live by words alone - even if as a politician he is sometimes forced to eat his own.

It is dangerous for an elected politician to say something that someone might remember.

The revelations of politicians never reveal the whole truth.

The hardest thing for politicians is to choose the right moment to step aside.

A politician who cannot stand the public's displeasure is not worth having in difficult situations.

A yielding politician is one who feeds the crocodile in the hope that it will eat it last.

It is a great mistake in a state, where people think that cunning men are wise.

[Politiikka]