John Sarbanes Quotes

Washington isn't a city, it's an abstraction.

Clinton feels a profound alienation from the Washington culture here, and I happen to agree with him.

People have perceived dangers and real dangers, but to politicians, it's all the same.

That is what politics is really about—reality and not image.

Washington is totally out of touch with mainstream America.

In Washington you legislate, but at home you touch people's lives; that's what I try to do when I go there.

I think there are some people in Washington who are pretty out of step with what people want, certainly what Minnesotans want.

Being in Washington is more fictional than being in Hollywood.

in politics as in life, what is known is not necessarily what is believed, what is shown is not necessarily what is seen, and what is said is not necessarily what is heard.

The cure for admiring the House of Lords is to go and look at it.

Sometimes when I get home at night in Washington I feel as though I had been in a great traffic jam.

There's a tremendous gap between public opinion and public policy.

An awful lot of Republicans, both in Washington and outside Washington, are resigned to leaving Obamacare in effect.

You have to understand the separation between what exists in the print media and what exists in reality. It's important to never lose track of reality.

Nobody cares what any politician in Washington says.

If a man went simply by what he saw, he might be tempted to affirm that the essence of democracy is melodrama.

I want to thank the people of Texas for asking me to represent them in Washington.

I'm not revolted by Washington.

Washington is Hollywood for ugly people.

Events in America show the extent to which democracy there is fuelled by populism - Barack Obama's victory is a manifestation not of Washington's need for change, but of America's. That is not how democracy works in England.

As president, I'm committed to making Washington work better and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here.

One thing I congratulate everyone on is the great explosion which has occurred in Washington's Black House and the very important scandal which has gripped leaders of America.

I do not agree with Thomas Wolfe... about anything. You can go home again as long as you don't expect home to be what it was when you left it. Or you don't expect yourself to be what you were when you left home.

Ultimately, you change the culture in Washington only one way, and it's one election at a time, with the character of the people you send.

I certainly keep my eye on Washington all the time because often life is stranger than fiction.