Simon Seabag Montefiore Quotes

Politics is about accountability, it is about leadership, it is about courage.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

It's so much easier to throw rocks than it is to govern.

In politics, every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it.

In politics, as in business, leadership is crucial.

Political necessities sometime turn out to be political mistakes.

You know, everybody makes mistakes when they are president.

Leaders respond when they perceive that there will be a political cost of inaction.

Civilizations do not collapse because the citizenry are corrupt or lazy or anti-intellectual. These people do not have the power and influence to either lead or destroy. Civilizations collapse when those who have power fail to do their jobs.

Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?

To govern is to chose.

[Campaign] Promises forecast governance.

Governing is about selecting.

We all make mistakes. In public life, we make them in public view.

Governing has always been hard.

There is a paradox in politics that what it takes to get elected is not necessarily what it takes to govern, and my feeling is that trying to control things too much feels icky to me.

Leadership is important in politics.

We consistently allow politicians to get away with playing identity politics rather than demanding evidence of what they're going to do and how they're going to do it.

We critique all politicians who are in power, whenever there's a talking point.

You don't get to make their decisions but you do get to choose the decision makers.

Politics is the art of realizing what there is to realize.

I think politicians do great things in the world, but I don't think they're the only ones who can. I don't like all the rhetoric and the finger pointing.

Good ideas are the backbone of good government.

And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.