Veerappa Moily Quotes

The art of politics is knowing what to do next.

Children have in the past and continue to influence policy makers.

Good or bad, political choices have an impact on the way country’s behave.

My job is to advise politicians, elected officials, and government ministries of the best way to deal with important issues, both localized, national, and the grand challenges facing humanity.

Public opinion shapes public policy dramatically.

In a democracy, every little wrong idea may grow up to become national policy.

A wise governor told me a long time ago, political capital you don't get more of by keeping it. You get it by using it.

I think almost every political leader is always told that the next speech they make is the most crucial one.

Avoid any specific discussion of public policy at public meetings.

Politics doesn't matter, policy does.

Good policy makes good politics and what I've done has been good politics.

Running a country is much more difficult than running a campaign.

A legislator has thousands of issues he must decide. Five minutes of access to present your case is very valuable.

How can we decide matters of public policy when we cannot understand them?

Sometimes political parties have a very short window to influence public policy

You cannot make elected officials … do what they will not do.

The Constitution would not actually be a live enterprise without lobbies because that's the way one petitions for the redress of grievances.

... the persons who control the President's rhetoric exert an enormous influence over his actions and policies.

Whenever I tell people I am a lobbyist, there is an embarrassed pause.

Politics is about timing and situations.

Politics is who gets what, when, how.

What is the soul, the informing spirit of our institutions, of our entire system of government but public opinion. Let us direct the force, the vast moral force of this engine, to the aid of others.

Today's public opinion, though it may appear as light as air, may be tomorrow's legislation-for better or for worse.

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 a democracy, if the people don’t vote, the policies are made by others….The major decisions of our society are going to be made by our elected officials, like it or not.