The ability to change one’s views without losing one’s seat is the mark of a great politician.

––Morris K. Udall

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

––Franklin Pierce Adams

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

––Marcel Achard

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.                          ––Will Durant

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.

––Lord Acton

Practical politics consists of ignoring facts.

––Henry Brooks 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 or evidence.

 ––John Adams

I believe there’s something out there watching over us. Unfortunately, it’s the government.

––Woody Allen

I had no idea of the enormous and unquestionably helpful part humbug plays of the social life of great peoples dwelling in a state of democratic freedom.

––Winston Churchill

Never complain and never explain.        ––Benjamin Disraeli

I don’t make any apologies for what I do on the campaign trail.

––George W. Bush

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to bring governed at all.

––G.K. Chesteron

Fifty percent of [people] won’t vote, and fifty percent don’t read newspapers. I hope it’s the same fifty percent.             ––Gore Vidal

Ask a man which way he is going to vote, and he will probably tell you. Ask him, however, why, and vagueness is all.

––Bernard Levin

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

 ––Abraham Lincoln

 

(Each week this column features quotations gleaned from the readings and experiences of our editors, reporters, readers, and friends. All are invited to submit quotations for inclusion here. They may be sent to Gleanings, c/o The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470 emailed to editor@thebee.com.)