E. W. Howe Quotes

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

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

A politician's goal is always to manipulate public debate. I think there are some politicians with higher goals. But all of them get corrupted by power.

I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.

Government has come to be a trade, and is managed solely on commercial principles. A man plunges into politics to make his fortune, and only cares that the world shall last his days.

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

Mothers may still want their sons to grow up to become President, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process.

I’m always amused by politicians running against Washington, when they desperately want to get to Washington.

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.

These Yankee politicians are the lowest race of thieves in existence.

My three years in politics was very instructive about the way in which the appetite for political power can destroy a human mind, destroy principles and values, and transform people into little monsters.

Careerism in Washington "goes to the heart of what's wrong in America right now."

Politics is ugly. Never doubt what small men will do for great power.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I found that out when I was Attorney General in Massachusetts.

In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.

Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.

The American people do not begrudge anyone his or her power until they start abusing it.

Power is always a corrupting influence.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

I began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency and that if the cancer was not removed the president himself would be killed by it.

Politics ruins the character.

President Johnson had a habit of throwing dollars at a question and the question would disappear.

More coming out about Saddam Hussein. We now know he takes Viagra and he has as many as six mistresses. No wonder Congress is reluctant to take action against this guy - he's one of their own.

All facts prove that the Saenuri Party is a group of traitors who stoop to any infamy to realize its ambition to seize power.

I think a lot of people start out full of idealism and fresh ideas. And then a lot of times, being re-elected becomes more important than staying true to your principles.