Bernard Bailyn Quotes

Politics are the divine science, after all.

Modern political science started in the late nineteenth century as a branch of history.

To an intellectual who is adrift in politics, a theory is an aim; to a true politician his theory is a boundary.

A political theory seeks to find from history the limits of the politically possible.

To be a political philosopher is more a vocation than a career …. it is a vocation for thinking about the political. Not just day-to-day politics, but about the phenomenon of the political, that all communities of any degree of complexity organize themselves according to certain principles of justice, equality, reciprocity, and authority.

I dread the reveries of you philosophic politicians.

Politics is - once in a while - a forum for serious debate about political philosophy.

I am a political human being. I have - that's one of my interests. I studied political science in college. I was actually going to get my Ph.D. in poli-sci. And a lot of my material from early on in my career dealt with politics, so I've always considered myself as somebody who enjoys political humor. So I'm not going to stop.

Politics was his passion, but he wasn't suited for the rough-and-tumble of the game. He felt things too deeply. There was no wall between his head and his heart.

The idea of sovereignty current in the English speaking world of the 1760's was scarcely more than a century old. It had first emerged during the English Civil War, in the early 1640's, and had been established as a canon of Whig political thought in the Revolution of 1688.

I always had a respect and an admiration for people who got into politics. I certainly have always been interested in law and political science.

Even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror.

Politics ought to be adjusted not to human reasonings but to human nature, of which reason is but a part and by no means the greatest part.

The adjective "political" in "political philosophy" designates not so much the subject matter as a manner of treatment; from this point of view, I say, "political philosophy" means primarily not the philosophic study of politics, but the political, or popular, treatment of philosophy, or the political introduction to philosophy the attempt to lead qualified citizens, or rather their qualified sons, from the political life to the philosophic life.

I don't consider myself a serious and social political critic.

Cynics who say power is all that counts in politics forget that power without ideas is just improvisation.

I'm a politician. Politics is just a convenience for our life and we just have to create a beautiful world together that would be very convenient for us and just enjoyable.

You can't build politics on love. People aren't concerned with love; it's too disordered. They prefer despotism. Too much freedom breeds chaos.

I have no faith in political arithmetic.

My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman's dance.

[C]ontemporary liberalism stands on a foundation of assumptions and ideas integral to the larger fascist movement.

You may not think about politics, but politics think about you.

Politics cannot be a science, because in politics theory and practice cannot be separated, and the sciences depend upon their separation.

Obviously I think politics is interesting and important and educational.

The key ingredient of politics is the idea that all of society's ills can be cured politically. It's like a cookbook where the recipe for everything is to fry it. The fruit cocktail is fried.