Robert G. Ingersoll Quotes

Two kinds of men generally best succeed in political life; men of no principle, but of great talent; and men of no talent, but of one principle - that of obedience to their superiors.

I don't have to be in politics.

I wasn't a party apparatchik. I think too many of today's people in both parties come forward, university, 'What party will I join? Oh, yes, I know somebody here. I might get a job working for this member or for that shadow minister or minister.'

I love politics, but I wouldn't want to be involved in it. Too little money, too much work! I don't really have the personality for that.

It's like going into the Senate. You know, the first time you get there, you're all excited, 'My God, how did I ever get here?' Then, about six months later, you say, 'How the hell did the rest of them get here?'

I think I went into poli-sci because I knew there was a stage, plus I thought I wanted to help people, and I realized in poli-sci that if you want to be a politician you're either born into it, or you've got an amazing brain, which those are rare - and I don't have one.

I like lots of career politicians; I'm not against all career politicians.

But I don't need to use politics as a way of making money.

Ralph Reed is deeply ambitious and always was so. There was a time when he... in one of my interviews, he said he pondered running the Ross Perot campaign, and he wasn't sure he wanted to do the Christian Right thing; he was worried that it boxed him into a corner.

I wanted to have a political career. I thought studying political science would be the best way to achieve it.

The essence of American politics consists of the manipulation of populism by elitism.

The greatest beggar and the most troublesome of all the office seekers during my Administration was General Harrison.

Politics are now nothing more than the means of rising in the world.

Lunched with Jack Kennedy, the new Senator from Massachusetts. He has the making of a first-class Senator or a first-class fascist.

Men in political life must be ambitious.

Territorial Governors -- are nothing but politicians who go out to the outskirts of countries and suffer the privations there in order to build up stakes and come back as United States Senators.

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

I have run across characters in my political career that have that singular focus of being someone, being in a position of power.

No doubt the ridiculous politicians are right to like politics. They have found careers in which success can be achieved by being ridiculous. Imagine Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush rising to the top of any other profession.

I am hesitating about joining politics since I know the difficulties.

I am joining politics for sure.

Not everyone who goes to Washington becomes Washington.

Politics always fascinated me. In my 20s, I was involved in politics and, as I look in the mirror, not for the noblest of purposes. It was for sport.

People close to me personally, politically, have expressed frustration that I'm not the political animal that they wish that I were.

I started thinking about getting into politics when David Cameron became leader.