Horace Walpole Quotes

I admire politicians. It is a really tough assignment, and I would fall at the first fence.

People should be judged on the basis of their performance, not nationality, personality, education, or personal traits and skills.

The game has a cleanness. If you do a good job, the numbers say so. You don't have to ask anyone or play politics. You don't have to wait for the reviews.

I don't want a president like me! I suck, okay. I want an elitist, smart guy.

There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability.

I have the greatest respect and admiration for Congressman Issa, but I don't intend to be Darrell Issa-like.

I have tremendous admiration for everyone who enters the political arena so long as their goal is to do what they believe is right for the people of New York.

Good political leadership is good government. What we need is more good political leadership.

Do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich; judge your neighbor fairly.

Of all our public men of today he stands first in my reverence & admiration, & the next one stands two-hundred-&-twenty-fifth. He is the only statesman we have now. ... Cleveland drunk is a more valuable asset to this country than the whole batch of the rest of our public men sober. He is high-minded; all his impulses are great & pure & fine. I wish we had another of this sort.

I would not hesitate to vote for a white person as president if I thought he was the best person for the job.

I don't think the standard of our politicians is very high. And when you get good ones, world-class ones, like a Blair or a Brown or a Thatcher, then they do stand out - they are head and shoulders above everybody else.

Our best people don't go into politics.

There's no such thing as a genius in politics, or at least I have never met one. There are only human beings, some better than others, who rise or fall on the challenges they meet.

I would like to be judged on the validity of my arguments, not as a victim.

In a democracy people get the leaders they deserve.

I say no body of men are fit to make Presidents, judges and generals, unless they themselves supply the best specimens of the same; and that supplying one or two such specimens illuminates the whole body for a thousand years.

There were four million people in the American Colonies and we had Jefferson and Franklin. Now we have over 200 million and the two top guys are Clinton and Dole. What can you draw from this? Darwin was wrong.

A presidential campaign may easily degenerate into a mere personal contest, and so lose its real dignity. There is no indispensable man.

...there are some who are naturally fitted for philosophy and political leadership, while the rest should follow their lead and let philosophy alone.

No lover ever studied every whim of his mistress as I did those of President Roosevelt.

A man with a long history of racial discrimination should never run our government.

Radical transparency is critical to having an idea meritocracy because it shows what's actually happening without spin and prevents people from maneuvering politically behind each others' backs. It brings problems and weaknesses to the surface and allows people to see how they are dealt with, so it's great for training people on how to deal with real problems.

What is any political campaign save a concerted effort to turn out a set of politicians who are admittedly bad and put in a set who are thought to be better. The former assumption, I believe is always sound; the latter is just as certainly false. For if experience teaches us anything at all it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

When Hillary Clinton deserved to be praised, I praised her. When Donald Trump did, as well, I did that, too.