Jenny Shipley Quotes

Newt Gingrich has certainly seen his own empire rise - and fall.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

Rock stars generally don't last in the Senate, starting with John Kennedy. Too much work, too slow, too little juice. Getting something accomplished takes a remarkable amount of tedious work. Rock stars who become senators either run for something else or retire on the job. They certainly don't make a mark.

A man’s got to walk if he is going to be in politics.

Having stared into the abyss of what it actually means for your life to be the leader of a political party, I'm just full of admiration and respect for anyone who wants to do it.

I'm a man with a great political future behind me.

Everyone believed the Senate could not really be led. It used to take so long to rise up through seniority. In two years Lyndon Johnson is assistant leader of his party. In four years he is the leader of his party.

There are politicians who seethe with ambition all the time, and there are a lot of other politicians who don't. I'm in the second category, that's all.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

I got to be White House chief of staff, ten years of congressman, secretary of defense, vice-president. If you're a political junkie like I obviously am - that was - every one of those was just a tremendous experience. I'm very comfortable with what I did and why I did it and how I did it. And I'll let others judge whether they liked it or not.

You know, a statesman is a dead politician.

I'm not terribly focused on whether I even could ever become the Leader of the Liberal Party or the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in the future.

Life itself has so much politics, why should I make it my profession? I'm just a politician's son, not a politician myself. Two politicians, that's my dad and elder brother, in the family are enough. I'm happy doing my own stuff in Bollywood.

It is no secret that I believe my son, Attorney General Beau Biden would make a great United States Senator - just as I believe he has been a great Attorney General. But Beau has made it clear from the moment he entered public life, that any office he sought, he would earn on his own.

Look what's happened to Barack Obama over the last two years or George Bush for eight. It's a blood sport. But at some point I may feel the need to run for office again.

I have no political ambitions for myself or my children.

But why should I run for office and lose what little influence I have?

There's nothing in my background that would have said I was destined to be a senior politician.

The first years in Parliament I did nothing - nothing to any purpose. My own distinction was my darling object.

…it was far better to be known as an ex-secretary than an ex-defeated candidate for governor.

[Summarizing his political career:] Just say I was sober and I meant to do every damn thing I did

When I was elected at age 27 to the New York City Council I immediately became Minority Leader. I was the only Republican.

I would rather have a full term in the Senate—a place in which I would feel more consciously able to discharge the duties required, and where there is more chance to make a reputation, and less danger of losing it than four years of the presidency.

There are not many people in politics who ever want to get close to the heat.

He was born to be a senator. He never said anything important, and he always said it sonorously.