Peter Higgs Quotes

Patronage is almost a wicked word. By itself it could well-nigh defeat democracy.

Dictators can fix up their entire families in good jobs, in or around government, and often do. In democracies, such a practice is frowned upon. Privileged access to the corridors of power through family connections and a kind of old boys' network, is also deemed an abuse of power, and so it is.

Government runs by clout. That's how it runs, by clout.

Politics makes strange postmasters.

We had less qualified trumping more qualified people just because of their political connections.

Ability and fitness for the office, where they exist, are as a rule, purely accidental. The selection is made primarily to strengthen the power of the party. This explains the principle by which appointments are parceled out to meet the alleged claims of particular political districts; it also explains the even more vicious principle by which race, nationality and creed often dictate the selection of Magistrates.

In Washington, every closet has a revolving door.

Every single administration in American political history has put cronies and pals and donors into political positions. But normally those people become the ambassador to Liechtenstein or the deputy undersecretary of commerce.

It is a matter of common knowledge that the government of South Carolina is under domination of a small ring of cunning, conniving men.

Oh, that all the things my father had told me about how disgusting Washington is are true. And again it's the system - there are lots of nice, well-meaning people there. But it's a sleazy place. And politics is all about doing favors.

I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.

People like Elizabeth Dole have given too much power to the special interests.

Some things never change, suck up to the government and you get an honour.

When you start attacking cronyism and people's political interests, it gets nasty.

This town was built on nepotism.

After your first victory as New York Governor you gave jobs worth $3,000 to $20,000 per year to your friends and compatriots, and I returned to my garret and my crust, and my desperate battle with pecuniary obligations.

The greatest beggar and the most troublesome of all the office seekers during my Administration was General Harrison.

They were both obnoxious, drunk with their power …. they were the hatchet men of the Nixon administration, the killers, the psychopaths in residence

What we affirm is that the theory which regards places in the public service as prizes to be distributed after an election, like plunder after a battle, the theory which perverts public trusts into party spoils, making public employment dependent on favor and not on proved merit, necessarily ruins the self-respect of public employees, destroys the function of party in a republic, prostitutes elections into a desperate strife for personal profit, and degrades the national character by lowering the moral tone and standard of the country.

The White House is another world. Expediency is everything.

Politics, as an end in itself, is a poor business to be in.

The Mexican government has been corrupt for 140 years.

The delusion of the people is necessary to the dominant party. I see the extent to which that delusion has been already carried, and I see there is no length to which it may not be pushed by a party in possession of the revenues and the legal authorities of the United States

As long as government exists, corruption will exist. It is an illness of government and can only be cured by the people.

Our blooming republic began to decline under the withering touch of Martin Van Buren! Disappointed ambition; thirst for power, pride, corruption, party spirit, faction, patronage; perquisites, fame, tangling alliances, priest-craft, and spiritual wickedness in high places, struck hands and reveled in midnight splendor.