Daniel Patrick Moynihan Quotes

When you play a game of thrones you win or you die.

Leaders respond when they perceive that there will be a political cost of inaction.

In politics, when you become serious, you become a threat to somebody. And they usually aren't too nice about it.

Know when to speak - for many times it brings danger, to give the best advice to kings.

The other teams could make trouble for us if they win.

It's easy enough to get into power. You can make promises and try to be all things to all people. But the moment you have to make decisions, you're going to annoy at least half of them. Whatever you do, in the end you're almost certain to be brought down by your own character traits.

Politics is tricky; it cuts both ways. Every time you make a choice, it has unintended consequences.

Politics can be likened to driving at night over unfamiliar hills and mountains. Close attention must be paid to what the beam can reach and the next bend.

I am not concerned about getting reelected. I can make the unpopular but necessary decision. Your focus from day one is on your legacy rather than political considerations.

Because each are going to blame each other. The thing that Canberra has to really get right is the sharing of the resource. But my problem with people in the government who are there for a short time is that there's no consequences for some of these decisions they make.

When you're in politics sometimes you step on toes and they come back and kick you in the backside.

Failure is the most terrible thing in our business. When we fail, the whole world knows about it.

The GOP/corporate right-wing, it seems, never really considers the consequences of their actions.

Anyone who gets too close to President Bush will get burned.

When we have congressmen and top state politicians all working together with powerful interests, what have we got to fight against them? Not much, except to ask for justice.

A statesman is judged by results. If his policy fails he goes. It may be unfair, but there is a kind of rough justice about it.

Our rulers do wrong from choice and right from necessity.

In Washington, if you don't win, you lose. If you don't survive, you die. If you don't prosper, you fail.

[Politics is a] war of all against all … a quest for power after power that ceaseth only in death.

Washington [DC] is a zero sum place.

We always defer … kick the can down the road. The only way you get into trouble in politics is to make choices.

If I do bad, shoot me.

There is probably no such thing as a level playing field in political campaigns.

I work in politics and media, two industries that have been particularly affected by the issue of misconduct. We have seen famous and powerful men finally pay a price for behavior they got away with for decades. Many have lost their positions and status - rightly so.

I have no doubt that the lies Trump told on the campaign trail will come crashing back at him in karmic retribution.