John Kerry Quotes

In politics there's never a magic wand.

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.

You do the policy, I'll do the politics.

I'm not a professional politician, I'm a problem solver.

You know, one of the things I think you understand as president is you're held responsible for everything, but you don't always have control of everything, right?

Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.

Leaders respond when they perceive that there will be a political cost of inaction.

The dominant color of politics is gray; difficult choices and compromise are required at almost every step of the journey toward a major new program.

When you are President you have to get something done, and that often means compromise.

To govern is to chose.

Governing is about selecting.

Governing has always been hard.

Once you've built the big machinery of political power, remember you won't always be the one to run it.

Leadership is important in politics.

We consistently allow politicians to get away with playing identity politics rather than demanding evidence of what they're going to do and how they're going to do it.

Taking power is fine. But what do you do when you are in power?

The public is going to be looking for examples of immaturity or inexperience or whatever it might be, but I think that's where we have to prove what we're capable of doing from a policy standpoint and from a leadership standpoint.

Advisers advise, and ministers decide.

The ruling power is always faced with the question, ‘In such and such circumstances, what would you do?’, whereas the opposition is not obliged to take responsibility or make any real decisions.

Governing is different than campaigning, and that comes with a whole different level of responsibility.

By the time you become the leader of a country, someone else makes all the decisions.

The issues are by some geometric number - 100 or 200 or 500 - times more complicated today than we appreciated them to be when Franklin Roosevelt was around.

High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.