Aphorisms Galore!

Law and Politics

163 aphorisms  ·  7 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/weoyuknk  ·  submitted 1997

Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business.

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

tiny.ag/is5ffzu6  ·  submitted 1997

A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election.

Bill Vaughan, in Law and Politics and War and Peace

tiny.ag/jjhww8cq  ·  submitted 1997

I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.

Voltaire, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/f4xotdy1  ·  submitted 1997

I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.

Voltaire, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/kzothtfn  ·  submitted 1997

For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

Bob Wells, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/5u0stmi1  ·  submitted 1997

A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time.

Alfred E. Wiggam, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/sq8ko4bm  ·  submitted 1997

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Oscar Wilde, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/5e9cdaq6  ·  submitted 1997

No nation ancient or modern ever lost the liberty of freely speaking, writing, or publishing their sentiments, but forthwith lost their liberty in general and became slaves.

John Peter Zenger, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/grvjpk8x  ·  submitted 1997

"Political economy" is a phrase consisting of two incompatible words.

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

tiny.ag/7j6zgqod  ·  submitted 1997

A diplomat is a man who can convince his wife she'd look stout in a fur coat.

Unknown, in Law and Politics and Men and Women

tiny.ag/uqnuiixs  ·  submitted 1997

A liberal is someone too poor to be a capitalist, and too rich to be a communist.

Unknown, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/hjlqxeds  ·  submitted 1997

In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.

Christian Nevell Bovee, (from Politicians and Other Scoundrels by Ferdinand Lundberg), in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/vdyroj5m  ·  submitted 1997

What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank?

Bertolt Brecht, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/k0emebpg  ·  submitted 2011 by peter

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.

Neil Postman, in Wisdom and Ignorance and Law and Politics

tiny.ag/zcjracxo  ·  submitted 1997

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

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

tiny.ag/vkpbru1q  ·  submitted 1997

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

tiny.ag/sp9ytcxh  ·  submitted 1997

The Devil's Dictionary (paperback)

Vote: The instrument and symbol of a free man's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.

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

tiny.ag/16qnix2l  ·  submitted 1997

To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.

Otto von Bismarck, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/7pr2vmql  ·  submitted 1998 by Edward Wayne Blakeman

Nowadays it's not as important for voters to know what a politician has done as what he or she hasn't done.

Edward Blakeman, in Law and Politics

tiny.ag/mwoxawkr  ·  submitted 1997

Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

Mark Twain, in Law and Politics