Boris Yeltsin Quotes

I always felt that a governor surrenders a certain amount of privacy. And I came to accept that.

You have to fight really hard for a private life, and sometimes you don't have one. It just gets to you after a while. It's tough.

The highest levels of fame in the entertainment business are geared toward keeping the artist disconnected, disinterested and continuing to make product and not developing any sort of 'normal life.'

Washington can be a very lonely place for Congressman and Senators. Many acquaintances almost all of whom want something and very few friends.

When you hit the big time, big money, big egos, people don't talk. You have no friends.

Fame is a curse... it was the worst phase of my life, which I thank God I'll never have to go through again.

I lost some of my friends because I got so famous, people who just assumed that I would be different now. I felt like everyone hated me. That is the most unhappy time of my life.

But, you know, we have these entrenched entities - and I'm talking about both Republicans and Democrats - who believe that when you're elected to office, you become some kind of member of the aristocracy, and that anyone who challenges you is attacking you and is unpatriotic. This is foolishness.

Politicians are so detested. And the main cause is not policy; it's the fact that there is no trust.

I can tell you that too much money is corrupting American politics. Don't blame the American public. The U.S. Supreme Court has a lot to answer for, because it has made it impossible for Congress to reduce the corrupting influence of money on American political life.

I don't typically have a social life, I don't have a family, and I will stay up all night, every night, for days on end, to solve something that I think is solvable. And it's very frustrating sometimes, because I know that I'm like that, and it's not always a positive result.

I would like to have a more social life than I have.

I have lots of friends, but I'm probably a terrible friend to all of them, even my family. I wouldn't be surprised if I found myself with no friends later on in life. My friends become my enemies.

I don't really have a social life.

I think a lot of young people don't realize the price of fame is a lot higher than they imagine.

No man should be in public office who can't make more money in private life.

I'm fascinated by politicians, because I suspect the huge majority of them go into it full of ideas and for the best possible reasons but end up being hijacked.

I've had a lot of disappointments. I think my biggest disappointment is the failure of elected officials to make good on their promises in regards to the environment or anything else, really. I have very little faith in politicians.

A minister’s family will expect him to do things that are impossible on a minister’s salary; they make spurious demands such as expecting them to buy a new car or take them on trips. Where does the money come from? When an honest aspirant for public office comes along, his village and his family will say, ‘No, not that one because he won’t eat and he won’t let us eat.’

Under every stone lurks a politician

Of course, in my country most political leaders are really, well, I suppose I think of them as being, well, not gangsters but more or less the same kind of thing, no? I mean—people who go in for getting elected. What can you expect of a man like that?

Why the best men do not get into politics.

A most wretched custom is our electioneering and scrambling for office. Misserima omnimo est ambitio honorumque contentio.

Honorariums are really dishonorariums. So long as they continue, public trust in Congress will sink even below its minimal level today.... Public officials should have only one paymaster: the Government. When the Government pays too little, the temptation to find other paymasters becomes far harder to resist.

Politics, as an end in itself, is a poor business to be in.