Law and Politics

Diplomacy: The patriotic art of lying for one's country.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in Law and Politics

In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary, "patriotism" is defined as the last resort of the scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first.

Ambrose Bierce, in Law and Politics

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a bit longer.

Henry Kissinger, in Law and Politics

University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.

Henry Kissinger, in Law and Politics

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Honoré de Balzac, in Law and Politics

We cannot separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat.

John Perry Barlow, in Law and Politics

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.

John F. Kennedy, in Law and Politics and Wisdom and Ignorance

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

John F. Kennedy, in Law and Politics

The status quo is the only solution that cannot be vetoed.

Clark Kerr, in Law and Politics

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

Nikita Khrushchev, in Law and Politics

The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy.

Unknown, in Law and Politics

To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise above your principles.

Unknown, in Law and Politics

Voters are people who have the God-given right to decide who will waste their money for them.

Unknown, (from Politicians and Other Scoundrels by Ferdinand Lundberg), in Law and Politics

When the government fears the people, we have liberty. When the people fear the government, we have tyranny.

Unknown, in Altruism and Cynicism and Law and Politics

Bad policies, stupid policies, gutless policies have real consequences.

Molly Ivins, in Law and Politics

I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Thomas Jefferson, in Law and Politics

If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.

Thomas Jefferson, in Law and Politics and Vice and Virtue

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

Thomas Jefferson, in Law and Politics

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

Thomas Jefferson, in Law and Politics

Thoughts cannot be censored.

Lassi Kämäri, in Law and Politics