George Meany Quotes

I never failed to convince an audience that the best thing they could do was to go away.

We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.

In argument, truth always prevails finally; in politics, falsehood always.

All politicians are to some extent salesmen.

I allow the public to believe that I have more influence with the King than I do in reality.

Politics and acting are very closely tied. The job is to convince.

Talking with most people usually involves a search for truth. Talking with congressmen is strictly special effects.

Politics is the art of achieving prestige and power without merit.

You listen to a politician making a speech, and it is like hearing nothing. Whereas, music is unmistakably music. The thing about music is that nobody listens to it unless it's real. I don't think that you can fool anybody for too long in music. And you certainly can't fool everybody.

The Politician uses the language of diplomacy of which he is a master, and it consists in telling some of the truth without necessarily exhausting it.

Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

Deception is the knowledge of kings.

Politics is the art of making the people believe that they are in power, when in fact, they have none.

Hypocrisy and rhetorical flimflam are standard in politics …

Demagoguery is not unknown in American history.

Politics is the attempt to achieve power and prestige without merit.

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.

The king is so subtle with his words that he would confound the apostolic religion itself. He will find the weak points of the pope's character and will trip him up to his destruction.

Tell the lie over and over and over. It's an art that Trump understands well. There's no better evidence than his absolutely false claim that he opposed the Iraq War in 2002.

In the absence of truth, power is the only game in town.

Words mean nothing to liberals. They say whatever will help advance their cause at the moment, switch talking points in a heartbeat, and then act indignant if anyone uses the exact same argument they were using five minutes ago.

Diplomacy: lying in state.

There is no necessity for the man who means to be an orator to understand what is really just but only what would appear so to the majority of those who will give judgment; and not what is really good or beautiful but whatever will appear so; because persuasion comes from that and not from the truth.

History is not happenstance: it is conspiratorial. Carefully planned and executed by people in power.

And they'll vote for me because I'm the best liar, because I do it honestly, with a certain finesse. They know that lies and truth are very close, and that something beautiful rests between.