Bernard Baruch Quotes

To win power anywhere you have to convince people that you can do something for them.

No man ever exercised less influence in the Senate or the House of Representatives than he, but no man ever exercised more power as a political leader.

One of the things that you learn, having been in this [President's] office for four years, is the old adage of Abraham Lincoln's. That with public opinion there's nothing you can't do and without public opinion there's very little you can get done.

You can be president of the United States and have the best, most bipartisan-seeming idea in the world. But if it doesn't have a constituency, you might as well be town clerk of Toad Suck, Arkansas.

Well, there are other aspects, I still command very good support in the party.

I want to talk to these people because they stay in power and you change all the time.

I have popular support.

This gets back to the fundamental lesson of political survival that Bill Clinton taught me, which is if you make it about the American people's lives instead of your life, you're going to be okay.

I will fight hard to keep my seat in this place, but that will depend on the people who sent me here.

I figured there's nobody who's going to beat me or shoot me or crucify me. I can't help if people don't like me up there in Washington. I've got a district that I respect, and I think it respects me.

Because the task of a political leader is to do what he believes is better for his country. Sometimes the public opinion is in favor; sometimes the public opinion needs a little bit more time to understand things.

The leader of a political party in a country like ours is so exposed that his enemies become as numerous and formidable as his friends.

An elected executive—whether President, governor or mayor—needs a popularity majority every day in his term.

The nation needs a statesman who fears not to meet and who knows how to sway immense masses of the working classes.

Our expectations of our leaders are too high—in what they can do to effect our day-to-day lives.

There is little leadership or followership on the Hill.

Polling is merely an instrument for gauging public opinion. When a President or any other leader pays attention to poll results, he is, in effect, paying attention to the views of the people.

Party leaders must have not only the confidence of the party, but the confidence of the people.

Whether this organization [the Chinese Communist Party] has strength depends not on whether it is in power, but on whether it has the best people, and whether it can earn the support of the people.

A politician rises on the backs of his friends ... but it is through his enemies he will have to govern afterwards.

When the mayor's concerned about something, eveybody's concerned about it.

There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.

In politics if the people give you popularity, the other politicians observe and give you power.

Men and not measures are, no doubt, the very life of politics. But then it is not the fashion to say so in public places.

Presidents have to decide what their popularity is for. Lyndon Johnson probably understood best that political popularity is a wasting asset. You had to use it when you had it.