Saul Alinsky Quotes

Always remember the first rule of power tactics; power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

I wish that the Indians believed me a god, for upon the report of an enemy's valor oftentimes depends the success of a battle, and false reports have many times done as great things as true courage and resolution.

Power may be at the end of a gun, but sometimes it's also at the end of the shadow or the image of a gun.

Always mystify, mislead and surprise the enemy if possible.

If you have a vast organization, parade it before the enemy, openly show your power. If your organization is small, do what Gideon did: conceal the members in the dark but raise a clamor that will make the listener believe that your organization numbers many more that it does. If your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the place.

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

Power in Washington is simply the perception of power.

Propaganda must not serve the truth, especially insofar as it might bring out something favorable to the opponent.... The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.

It's often been observed that the first casualty of war is the truth. But that's a lie, too, in its way. The reality is that, for most wars to begin, the truth has to have been sacrificed a long time in advance.

I think political people are afraid of me.

If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near.

Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.

People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.

The right can distort anything it wants.

It is well known that in war, the first casualty is truth - that during any war truth is forsaken for propaganda.

Advertising men and politicians are dangerous if they are separated. Together they are diabolical.

Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society.

Politicians are masters of the art of deception.

Flattery was one of Kissinger's principal tools in winning over Nixon, and a tool he employed shamelessly.

Everything about the left is perception, manipulation, and lies. Everything. Everything is 'Wag the Dog.' Everything is a structured deception.

Among the calamities of war, may he justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates, and credulity encourages.

All political power is primarily an illusion …. Mirrors and blue smoke …

In political warfare, you do not fight to prevail in an argument, but to destroy the enemy's fighting ability.

Food is as important to armies as ammunition—but more important than either is an unfailing supply of lies. You simply cannot murder your enemy in the most efficient manner if you know he is in every essential the same kind of a man as yourself.

Half the lies our opponents tell about us are not true.