John Adams Quotes

This is the way I think about politics: We want two diametrically opposed things from a politician. On one hand we want them to be bastions of moral integrity, perfect people, saints. And on the other hand, we want them to be effective leaders.

Good political leadership is good government. What we need is more good political leadership.

There are countries in which it would be as absurd to establish popular governments as to abolish all the restraints in a school or to unite all the strait-waistcoats in a madhouse.

If Rob Ford decided he wanted to run for the Liberal Party in 2015, we'd say, 'No, sorry, the way you approach things, the way you govern, the way you behave is not suitable to the kind of Liberal team we want to build.'

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

It is in his knowledge that man has found his greatness and his happiness, the high superiority which he holds over the other animals who inhabit the earth with him, and consequently no ignorance is probably without loss to him, no error without evil.

Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.

We have a media that presents every politician as being as bad as the next. There is no distinguishing between one good idea or another; no explanation of why constitutional change should be uppermost in the minds of the people I represent.

Bangalore needs a honest, passionate and hard-working MP, and I will be that MP.

It has been my philosophy all my life that good government is good politics.

History shows that more democracy is not a magic pill that will make institutionalized corruption will go away.

The Confederates (The Iroquois Indian Confederacy) were as celebrated for their eloquence, as for their military skill and political wisdom. Popular, or free governments have, in all ages, been the congenial soil of oratory. And it is, indeed, all important in institutions merely advisory; where persuasion must supply the place of coercion; where there is no magistrate to execute, no military to compel; and where the only sanction of law is the controlling power of public opinion.

Choose the manager of your government as you would the manager of your private business.

I don’t think that you have to run down someone’s reputation in order to run for the Presidency.

Leadership is not manifested by coercion, even against the resented. Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods.

Politicians are not the most reflective people in the world.

You need to have good people: honourable, capable, committed in politics, standing in public office. It's not a guarantee, but it's the ideal we have to aim for.

Is there some reason why the quality of people going into the parliament is not as high? I don't know the complete answer, but I think - in fact, I'm sure - that part of it is the increasing intrusiveness of the media - the general media and social media - into the private lives of politicians and their families.

In order to maintain public trust in government, elected officials must answer for what they do and say; this includes 140-character tweets.

Politicians... say what they say - you might get every now and again a genuine one, innit? But I think people, like, as a whole make the difference.

I see myself as a former politician, and in that capacity, I say to other politicians, 'Hold back.'

I want a group of Green MPs who will demonstrate to Canadians that it's possible to be respectful, ethical, hard working and actually stick to principle.

I have never used my office for anything other than the purpose in which I hold it - to represent the people who sent me to Washington.

I don't understand politics at all.

I think all our leaders are utterly beneath us. You just watch 'Prime Minister's Questions' and go: 'How is this the best that we've got?'