William Jennings Bryan Quotes

Someone tried to introduce me to Michael Bloomberg, but I declined.

I shake hands very gladly politically. I don't think you could be a politician if you didn't shake hands.

I was at a White House Correspondents' Dinner, and I met Bobby Jindal, and we had a perfectly lovely twenty minute conversation.

Look, not everybody plays well with each other on the playground. I get that, that's politics.

I have been in meetings where a head of state will say, 'I like your tie,' to a man... or, 'I like your country because the weather's good,' or whatever. So for me, the pins in some ways were openers.

I met Mr. Hoover socially. I never talked to him about anything connected with his work. We just met him.

One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President.

A statesman cannot afford to be a moralist.

A man is known by the company he organizes.

We all experience power struggles in our lives - at the workplace, with our friends, in our love lives. In a way, we're all politicians.

Because of who I am, when I sit at a poker table, I meet people who engage me in conversation, not only about poker, but also about the movie business and about the world of celebrities.

Today's appeasers are worse than Neville Chamberlain: Chamberlain didn't have himself as an example

He had no gifts for the compromises with human frailty which alone can grease the wheels of politics.

Here’s a little Washington clue. When they say, “With all due respect,” they’re about to insult you.

English politicians and diplomats are somewhat naive. They find it difficult to credit really bad intentions in others.

[Grover Cleveland] had a sort of patent way of shaking hands which he probably invented for self-protection. He grabbed the visitor's hand, gave it a slight squeeze, and dropped it like a hot potato. He never under any circumstances whatsoever permitted a visitor to grip his large, fat hand.

You [the President] invite Congressmen to the White House for dinner. And you know what is does? It puts them in great with their wives, because the wives love to be invited to the White House.

Parties in Washington are a natural extension of the working day.... Everybody uses everybody.

Negotiating with Franco is like having your teeth pulled.

Dealing with Wyoming is like dealing with the Russians. You never get anywhere by trying to cooperate.

What does it mean to be a great politician? To shake the hand of murders? To make concessions? To create illusions?

With some of Mr. Roosevelt's political acts I could never possibly agree. But I knew him solely in his capacity as leader of a nation at war -- and in that capacity he seemed to me to fulfill all that could possibly be expected of him.

That's politics. After six o'clock, we can be friends, but before six, it's politics.

Lots of deals happen in situations that aren't 'pure work.'

Maybe I'll create a guidebook for future political spouses: the dos and don'ts in D.C.