Hans-Dietrich Genscher Quotes

Being right too early is one of the most devastating things in politics

He has the best political mind of all the generals I have.

TR was a very practical politician, and it was partly from watching him sympathetically that I lost some of my contempt for politicians …

What public men, whether in or out of office, must avoid, is the making of predictions. This is what is called, in their own language, " committing themselves," and is never done without the greatest caution and necessity; and, therefore, whenever public men choose to put themselves at issue with the ministers, and hazard predictions, they become from that moment entitled to the praise of superior wisdom or not, just as their expectations are or are not verified by the event.

At a time when politics has become an almost minute-by-minute spectacle, political thinkers who try to discern a sweeping interpretive pattern in current events or to predict where those events may be heading are likely to find their work evaluated in terms dismayingly like those applied to candidates and strategists. One wrong guess, or an abrupt change in the political weather, can make even an illuminating political book seem as irrelevant as a bungled campaign.

Ronald Reagan knew audiences. It was a key element of his political genius. One of the things at which brilliant politicians are better than mediocre ones is smelling new public concerns over the horizon before they are picked up by polls - before the public even knows to call them 'issues' at all.

I make a prediction here and now, and, my friends, I want you to watch the proceedings of Congress in these coming weeks of this extra session, or of the next regular session, to see whether I am right or not.

I have never found, in a long experience in politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.

In politics you can't afford to be too knowledgeable about things like that.

It has proved politically wiser to set goals than to start programs.

If my son enters politics, I will be able to guide him. He too would have learnt a lot from watching me, so he is less likely to make mistakes.

I would love to believe that my political judgment is impeccable, but it's not.

Having studied politics doesn't necessarily give you political nous.

What we need and have not got at Westminster are real experience and wisdom, possessed by people who do not view politics as a career.

We are not politically naive.

I believe that there are certain things that could be taken care of that you don't need a strong political background in.

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

The ability to change one's views without losing one's seat is the mark of a great politician.

I've been described as a grizzled political veteran.

Politics at bottom is not all that complicated. It's all about timing.

No man can be a politician, except he be first a historian or a traveller; for except he can see what must be, or what may be, he is no politician.

To say that Jimmy Carter does not understand politics or is not a good politician denies the phenomenon by which he got to the White House. He is without question the best politician, when he's working at it, of anybody I have ever seen.

Truman will be the winner.

A statesman is judged by results. If his policy fails he goes. It may be unfair, but there is a kind of rough justice about it.

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