Eamon de Valera Quotes

How easy it is for a politician to forget that he is not usually saying anything at all.

The “cant” of the politician, like the cant of the “religious” man, is also protean in its guise, but its chief method is to explain away words. The politician can always show you that he didn’t mean what he says, but something rather different from what he says. Political cant consists in pretending to agreement with hearers, whoever they may be. This cant is part of the stock-in-trade of every politician, be he Tory, Whig, or Radical, and it is by its means that he tries to haul in stray votes.

Professional politicians will say anything, and they're always careful to leave themselves room to turn around and do the other.

When I got into politics, it was a shock. People promise all sorts of things and then never deliver.

We never heard a politician so desperate not to offend conventional elite opinion while pretending to be fearless and forthright.

Every time I hear a political speech or I read those of our leaders, I am horrified at having, for years, heard nothing which sounded human. It is always the same words telling the same lies. And the fact that men accept this, that the people’s anger has not destroyed these hollow clowns, strikes me as proof that men attribute no importance to the way they are governed; that they gamble – yes, gamble – with a whole part of their life and their so called 'vital interests.

A politician is required to listen to humbug, talk humbug, condone humbug. The most we can hope for is that we don't actually believe it.

I've never met a politician I haven't wanted to walk away from, and I've yet to hear a politician speak and actually believe the words coming out of his mouth.

Some politicians denounce government in order to capture the government and then they turn around and expand the government.

I—here in the presence of Almighty God, as I hope for ease, honor and comfort in this world, and happiness in the world to come, most earnestly, devoutly and religiously swear; that I will neither directly of indirectly assist the wicked instruments of ministerial tyranny and villainy, commonly called the king’s troops and navy, by furnishing them with provisions and refreshments of any kind …. I will neither directly or indirectly convey any intelligence, nor give any advice to the foresaid enemies describe …. I will whenever called upon by the voice of the continental congress or by that of … this particular colony … to take arms and subject myself to military discipline in defense of the common rights and liberties of America…

I have never been so tired of anything before as I have been with the political speeches of Mr. Johnson.... I look upon them as a national disgrace.

Bull permeates everything.... American people think politics and politicians are full of baloney.

The whole art of a political speech is to put nothing into it. It is much more difficult than it sounds.

Oaths are but words, and words but wind.

Politicians often confuse what sounds good with what really works.

The cynical impudence with which the reformers have tried to manufacture an ideal statesman out of the late shady politician beats anything in novel-writing. They are making popular capital. They lie and maneuver just like candidates for office. The independents and reformers are as bad as the late lamented, and for the same reason. It pays.[

Washington is deeply frustrating because so many of the positions that politicians hold are a product of ephemeral self-interest. They reverse themselves, for themselves, all the time.

Bush is the Liberace of Cuban politics. He knows how to play us. He says every single thing they want to hear.

There's nothing more oily and cynical in politics than telling the truth.

I don't know a lot about politics. I like talking about human behavior. Politicians are funny to me because they often say one thing and behave a different way.

How long do politicians have to keep on promising heaven and delivering hell before people catch on and stop getting swept away by rhetoric?

Americans care a lot about authenticity, rightly so. Every election is a quest for the genuine article. This is precisely what makes the long con of American politics such a rich and mystifying study.

When a politician uses the word 'folks,' we should brace ourselves for the deceit, or worse, that is coming.

I'm not into political gamesmanship.

Politicians make a lot of promises when they are campaigning, and they come to towns, and people get enthusiastic about them coming to their communities. And then they don't fulfill the promises.