Michael Foot Quotes

He's passed from rising hope to elder statesman without any intervening period whatsoever.

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years.

You don’t become a statesman unless you are first a good politician.

You know, a statesman is a dead politician.

I believe that [Bill] Clinton is the best tactical politician, certainly in my lifetime.

We forget that the most successful statesmen have been professionals. Lincoln was a professional politician.

In politics people build whole reputations off of getting one thing right.

Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

I think when you've been a career politician for 34 years you have to run on your record.

As I climbed the electoral ladder - from state assemblyman to mayor of Woodbridge and finally to governor of New Jersey - political compromises came easy to me because I'd learned how to keep a part of myself innocent of them.

First and foremost, when I think of him - I'm prejudiced; I worked for the guy for six and a half years - when I think of him, I think of him first and foremost as an idea politician.

The fastest way for a politician to become an elder statesman is to lose an election.

A statesman is a politician who’s been dead ten or fifteen years.

Clinton was the most formidable politician I have ever encountered.

I have covered Pelosi for years, and always wondered how she learned to operate and excel in politics the way she does.

Talent is really important in politics, but experience is also really important.

Politics is the one field you don't age out of.

Politics is ultimately not that complicated a profession; it's where the mediocre distinguish themselves.

My father was the Prime Minister of Pakistan. My grandfather had been in politics, too; however, my own inclination was for a job other than politics. I wanted to be a diplomat, perhaps do some journalism - certainly not politics.

The late Roy Jenkins was both a mentor and a personal friend. He was a man of both phenomenal intellect and political achievement in equal measure.

There's no smarter politician out there than Bill Clinton.

I grew up thinking that if I wanted to go be prime minister, I could.

People who know Paul Ryan say, 'He will be president one day.'

I have no ambitions to be a cabinet minister, or prime minister. I wouldn't wish being prime minister on my worst enemy.