Walter Bagehot Quotes

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

I am sure of my ability to form a good government.

The heart of a statesman should be in his head.

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.

There's something to be said for CEOs' entering politics: In theory, they have management expertise and financial savvy. Then again, it didn't work so well with Dick Cheney.

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years.

No man can be a politician, except he be first a historian or a traveller; for except he can see what must be, or what may be, he is no politician.

The statesman's duty is to bridge the gap between his nation's experience and his vision.

The more I have studied Lincoln, the more I have followed his thought processes, the more I am convinced that he understood leadership better than any other American president.

It is statesmanlike for the administration and Congress to look to our nation's welfare beyond their terms in office.

You don’t become a statesman unless you are first a good politician.

The distinction between a statesman and a politician is that the former imposes his will and his ideas on his environment while the latter adopts himself to it.

If the first year of the Trump administration has made anything clear, it's that experience, knowledge, education and political wisdom matter tremendously. Governing is something else entirely from campaigning. And perhaps, most important, celebrities do not make excellent heads of state.

Mr Brown is a politician of exceptional experience and ability, and I am sure he will discharge the office of Prime Minister with distinction

A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.

No high qualities of statesmanship are expected from a Congressman.

A disposition to preserve and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.

I believe that [Bill] Clinton is the best tactical politician, certainly in my lifetime.

You're going to find that, intellectually, the [governors] as a whole are a cut or two above what they were 10 or 20 years ago.

Most academicians are not too good politicians. Schumpeter, for instance, was a great economist, but he didn't do too well as minister of finance for Austria

Good political leadership for me involves getting the big decisions right - however difficult, however controversial, however potentially divisive and then being able to take people with you.

Anybody who is smart enough to be great, will be smart enough not to be President

I have presidential size policy ambition. I just don't have presidencial size personal ambition.

You might be considering elected office because you are angry with those in power. Indignation can be a motivator to run but not to govern. If you win you'll need more than anger to govern.

I think that the great presidents have always been a little more clever.