A garden, you know, is a very usual refuge of a disappointed politician. Accordingly, I have purchased a few acres about nine miles from town, have built a house, and am cultivating a garden.

Alexander Hamilton (1755 - 1804), Letter to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

Under every stone lurks¹ a politician.

Aristophanes (450 BC - 388 BC), Thesmophoriazusae, 410 B.C.

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

Aristophanes (450 BC - 388 BC), Knights², 424 B.C.

Now I know what a statesman is; he's a dead politician. We need more statesmen.

Bob Edwards

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Charles De Gaulle (1890 - 1970)

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.

Charles De Gaulle (1890 - 1970)

Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.

Chester Bowles (1901 - 1986)

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy³

Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything.

Frank Dane

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

Henry Kissinger (1923 - )

If I wanted to go crazy I would do it in Washington because it would not be noticed.

Irwin S. Cobb

If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.

Jay Leno (1950 - )

Mothers may still want their sons to grow up to be President, but according to a famous Gallup poll of some years ago, some 73 percent do not want them to become politicians in the process.

John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963), Profiles in Courage, 1956

The reason there are so few female politicians is that it is too much trouble to put makeup⁴ on two faces.

Maureen Murphy

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

Nikita Khrushchev (1894 - 1971)

I once said cynically⁵ of a politician, 'He'll doublecross that bridge when he comes to it.'

Oscar Levant (1906 - 1972)

He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself.

Philip Massinger, The Bondman, 1624

The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), The Conservative, Boston, Massachusetts, December 9, 1841

He has been called a mediocre⁶ man; but this is unwarranted flattery. He was a politician of monumental littleness.

Richard M. Nixon (1913 - 1994), Writing of John Tyler, Thomas Hart Benton, chapter 11, 1897

There is no such thing as a nonpolitical speech by a politician.

Richard M. Nixon (1913 - 1994), Address to Radio-Television Executives Society, New York City, September 14, 1955

An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.

Simon Cameron (1799 - 1889)

You've got to vote for someone. It's a shame, but it's got to be done.

Whoopi Goldberg

That's the trouble with a politician's life-somebody is always interrupting it with an election.

Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)