Raj Thackeray Quotes

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.

Political development should start at the grassroots.

I’m an elected official so I can talk at any time or any place, light or dark.

Never you mind about the country, or about the state, or the city, or about the ward. You take care of your precinct.

It is my right and my duty as a politician to speak about the problems in our country.

I am voting in the midterm elections because I believe that when people engage with their local government, it reminds those placed in power that they are public servants who will be held accountable for their decisions.

I'm not the boss of my house. I don't know how I lost it, I don't know when I lost it, I don't really think I ever had it. But I've seen the boss's job...and I don't want it!

I’ve never formally been number 1 in the Party, but everybody keeps hanging around me, showing me deference. I have to give the nod on every important decision. I carry too much weight and that is not good for the Party or the state.

I hold everybody responsible for Mr. Lincoln's reelection, and I will countenance nothing else!

We want political power in our country for our philosophy of life. This means we've got to get involved more and more in politics.

American democracy must be a failure because it places the supreme authority in the hands of the most ignorant part of society.

I cannot run the political machine. I have enough on my hands without that. It is the people's business.

A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.

Grass Roots Convention

Responsible citizenship comes from direct participation in the conduct of the government, and imposes equal responsibility upon every citizen. If we could quicken and increase appreciation of this responsibility, and every citizen were made to feel its weight and importance, it would go far toward improving our political and national life.

If you sit on the sidelines [and not vote], you are responsible for what happens.

No one can be responsible for every congressman or every member of his own party.

Making choices is what the Presidency is about.

… in order to emerge from a state of nullity, the [Dutch] bourgeois are asking to take part in government; the most extreme among them wish to participate in all deliberations on public matters …. The more moderate ask only to elect their regents and to have representatives to watch over the maintenance of their rights …

Political life is like this - elections go back and forth. Representative democracy can only be successful if one sits down and says, 'That's it. I will connect myself,' - as I did - 'connect my existence to a political project.' Then you automatically have in your party a lot of people who say, 'If that fails, so do I'.

I'm just an American citizen like everyone else and I'm not sitting at the power table in the room where it all happens.

I readily concede that a prime minister is not required to speak on every occasion or on every subject, but when there is a duty to speak, silence is unacceptable. Silence can be a strategy, silence can be a tactic, but silence can never be an answer to the ills of our polity and the fault lines of our society.

In my position as prime minister, I bear the highest responsibility for decisions.

I wanted to participate in the political responsibilities of an American citizen. I wanted to vote. I wanted to be a full member of the American community. I made America my home country. It's my identity in many ways.

Some city-council people are really awesome, but most are uninspired.