David Davis Quotes

Mothers may still want their sons to grow up to become President, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process.

I rise to perform a painful but, nevertheless, to me, an imperative duty; a duty which I think ought not longer to be postponed, and which cannot, without criminality on our part, be neglected.… I charge Andrew Johnson, Vice President and acting President of the United States, with the commission of acts which in contemplation of the Constitution, are high crimes and misdemeanors, for which, in my judgment, he ought to be impeached … I do impeach Andrew Johnson, Vice President and acting President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors: I charge him with a usurpation of power and violation of law: In that he has corruptly used the appointing power; In that he has corruptly used the pardoning power; In that he has corruptly used the veto power; In that he has corruptly disposed of public property of the United States; In that he has corruptly interfered in elections…

The principal end a prince was made for is to take care, that every one should have his rights. This ought to engage him to study not only the science of those great civilians, who ascend to the first principles of law, which regulate human society, and are the basis as it were of government and politics; but also that part of the law, which descends to the affairs of particular persons. This branch is generally left for the gentlemen of the long robe, and not admitted into the education of princes, though they are every day to pass judgment upon the fortunes, liberties, lives, honor, and reputation of their subjects. Princes are continually talked to of valour and liberality; but if justice do not regulate these two qualities, they degenerate into the most odious vices. Without justice valour does nothing but destroy; and liberality is only a foolish profuseness. Justice keeps all in order, and contains within bounds him, who distributes it, as well as those, to whom it is distributed.

Politics and the fate of mankind are shaped by men without ideals and without greatness. Men who have greatness within them don’t go far in politics.

when greed and fear are linked to power, you have a dangerous mix. We see that in political life. In part of the world, the mix of greed and fear means that those who get power become reluctant to give it back. One of the many things I like and admire in our democracies are the norms that make our leaders hand over power when voters tell them to

Honestly, the egos and the quest and thirst for power is very prevalent in Washington.

You know what kind of person it takes to run for President? Not normal. They could start out okay, but by the time they reach that level they've sold their soul to the devil so many times and stomped the guts out of enough people that they are definitely not like you and me, not even close.

I think that if politics is just about getting your backside on important seats, then it's a pretty worthless endeavor.

I began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency and that if the cancer was not removed the president himself would be killed by it.

In Washington, success is just a training course for failure.

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.

The interesting thing is that it seems like George W. Bush would have been happy being the president of anything. He could have been president of Major League Baseball.

The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be liberty.

I don't think that Washington is a fundamentally bad or corrupt place.

Mobutu was mainstream Africa. Every independent African Government was a one-party state at the time. None allowed opposition. Every one of them had rent-seeking political leaders. The only thing that set Mobutu apart was how ostentatious his theft was.

If he be not impeachable whilst in office, he will spare no efforts or means whatever to get himself reelected.

If you are a United States senator and are not under indictment or in detoxification, you automatically consider yourself as a potential candidate for the Presidency.

The people in Congress have no interest in preserving the Constitution because they are interested in power.

“Treason” and “bribery” will not reach many great and dangerous offenses including attempts to subvert the Constitution.

Our democracy has been marred by imperialism.

That could have been a very successful Presidency had President Nixon really believed in our system.

Who would be cleared by their committees? Not Washington, who was a rebel. Not Jefferson. who wrote that ... "rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Not Garrison, who publicly burned the Constitution; or Wendell Phillips ... a philosophical anarchist; nor [William] Seward of the Higher Law.... Not Lincoln ... or Wilson ... or Justice Holmes.

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

The spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest and ourselves united.

Anybody who deliberately tries to get himself elected to a public office is permanently disqualified from holding one.