Katherine Anne Porter Quotes

Politics is not a game for naive thinkers. You may go in as an idealist, but you certainly won't come out as one.

The purification of politics is an iridescent dream. Government is force.... The Decalogue and the Golden Rule have no place in a political campaign. The commander who lost the battle through the activity of his moral nature would be the derision and jest of history.

The prince must not mind incurring the scandal of those vices without which it would be difficult to save the state.

Governments almost never act with moral clarity and for very good reason. They are dealing with competing interests.

The supreme belief of our society is the dignity and freedom of the individual. To the respect of that dignity, to the defense of that freedom, all effort is pledged.

No man can do both effective and decent work in public life unless he is a practical politician on the one hand, and a sturdy believer in Sunday-school politics on the other. He must always strive manfully for the best, and yet, like Abraham Lincoln, must often resign himself to accept the best possible.

I recognize no rights but human rights.

As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends correspondingly to increase. And the dictator will do well to encourage that freedom...it will help to reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate.

Regardless of your race, religion or political affiliation, never hesitate to question those in authority.

A man may act as his conscience dictates so long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others. That is the spirit of true democracy, and all government by the Priesthood should be actuated by that same high motive.

To deny people of their human rights is to challenge their very humanity. To impose on them a wretched life of huger and deprivation is to dehumanize them. But such has been the terrible fate of all black persons in our country under the system of apartheid.

Highfalutin moral principles are impossible guides to foreign policy. At worst, they reflect hypocrisy; at best, extreme naivete.

A politician who climbs high over the bodies of the slain is described as vile or great according to the degree of his success.

Let us take care of our rights and we therein take care of our prosperity. Slavery is ever preceded by sleep

No one is innocent after the experience of governing. But not everyone is guilty.

Personal liberty is the paramount essential to human dignity and human happiness.

Liberty is meaningless if it is only the liberty to agree with those in power.

Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together. Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

The word liberal has been employed as the political equivalent of an untreatable but potentially containable social disease -- the kind that could be contracted merely by going to a foreign movie or ordering a decaf latte, or worse, a glass of French wine.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. It is not for the sake of a good public administration that it is required, but for the security in the pursuit of the highest objects of civil society, and of private life.

Of course, the Clintons are not only corrupt but cynical as well. They accept that the progressive media, the foundations, the universities, the bureaucracies, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley honor power more than trendy left-wing politics; they well understand that their fans will, for them, make the necessary adjustments to contextualize Clinton criminality or amorality.

When only cops have guns, it's called a "police state".

When one comes to think of it, there are no such things as divine, immutable, or inalienable rights. Rights are things we get when we are strong enough to make good our claim on them.

Civil government cannot let any group ride roughshod over others simply because their consciences tell them to do so.

A party is a political tool. If it's no longer useful, it should be crumpled up and thrown away.