Henry Adams Quotes

I've got three little kids at home, and I'm trying to save this country from itself. I'm not here to play political power games, and I've had enough of people playing political power games, and this has just gone on too long.

It is the civilian part of the politics that is very, very bad, and we have to change that.

Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.

Our job is to reintroduce political ideas that have worked and lift the veil of historical amnesia.

We used to fight for democracy. Democracy used to matter. We now treat it with contempt. We have turned our backs on values that we built up over hundreds of years, for the benefit of politicians in Europe. To me, that is heartbreaking.

If there was one last thing I could do in my life, it would be to help Dilma turn this country around, with the decency that the Brazilian public deserves.

It is simply the truth that the political system that I am part of has degenerated to the point that it needs fundamental change.

America does not need another political campaign based on denial and avoidance of some of our real problems. It needs a crusade to reform and renew our country, its institutions and political system.

The Declaration of Independence says when government fails, the people have the right to replace it. Well, New York State government has failed and the people have the right, indeed the people have the the people have the obligation, to act.

Today we must make a pact with each other to end this reckless conduct with the people's government.

Like a lot of people, I'm interested in public service and want to do as much as I can to change the direction of this country and will give some consideration to that after midterm elections.

We shall never change our political leaders until we change the people who elect them.

As a long-time registered Democrat who started voting in the year of Watergate, I resent being taken for a ride to the place where anything goes and nothing matters. And especially where nothing matters less than clear thinking and straight talk.

Politics requires the sense of possibility. Dare I say it - the audacity of hope.

We have to be bold in our national ambitions. First, we must win the fight against poverty within the next decade. Second, we must improve moral standards in government and society to provide a strong foundation for good governance. Third, we must change the character of our politics to promote fertile ground for reforms.

In most places in the country, voting is looked upon as a right and a duty, but in Chicago it's a sport.

The whole idea of a democracy is that we ourselves, the people, are supposed to make a path of our politics, and it is we who with our feet and our vote and our labors and our vigilance are supposed to shape our country.

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.

There's not a single day when I walk the streets of New York City when someone doesn't come up to me to say: 'Please, please, ask your dad to run for president.' We really need a businessman as leader of our country, not a politician.

Crime is the price society pays for abandoning character.

Politics isn't about big money or power games; it's about the improvement of people's lives.

For politics to change … culture must change too --- and that takes much more than dispatching troops, holding elections, and writing constitutions.

New politicians try to displace old ones by changing the electoral laws, while entrenched politicians defend outworn electoral systems when they feel that the new laws might weaken their positions and perhaps even abolish their sinecures.

Chicago ain’t ready for reform!

Bad politics tends to drive out good politics, just as bad money drives out good money.