Wikiquote:Transwiki/Famous political quotations

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. --Margaret Mead

A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. --John Stuart Mill

A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury. --John Stuart Mill

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. --John Stuart Mill

I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized. --John Stuart Mill

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. --John Stuart Mill

One person with a belief is equal to ninety-nine who have only interests. --John Stuart Mill

The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of the pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes. --John Stuart Mill

The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people. --John Stuart Mill

The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power. --John Stuart Mill

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. --John Stuart Mill

The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. --John Stuart Mill

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still. --John Stuart Mill

We have a right, also, in various ways, to act upon our unfavorable opinion of anyone, not to the oppression of his individuality, but in the exercise of ours. --John Stuart Mill

What distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their inability to act according to their beliefs. --John Stuart Mill

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men. --John Stuart Mill

The bedfellows politics made are never strange. It only seems that way to those who have not watched the courtship. -- Marcel Achard

Controversial proposals, once accepted, soon become hallowed. Dean Acheson

Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. -- Abigail Adams

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

Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody. -- Franklin Pierce Adams

Practical politics consists in ignoring facts. -- Henry Brooks Adams

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous. -- Henry Brooks Adams

Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society. -- John Adams

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. -- John Adams, 1770

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. -- John Adams

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. -- John Quincy Adams

Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason. -- Samuel Adams

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds… -- Samuel Adams

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -- Aesop

The Truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear. -- Herbert Agar, A Time for Greatness

The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. -- John F. Kennedy erroneously purporting to quote Dante Alighieri

There's not the least thing can be said or done, but people will talk and find fault. -- Dante Alighieri

Americans continue to suffer from a notoriously short attention span. They get mad as hell with reasonable frequency, but quickly return to their families and sitcoms. Meanwhile, the corporate lobbies stay right where they are, outlasting all the populist hysteria. -- Eric Alterman

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other. -- Oscar Ameringer