Political Discretion Quotes

An impeachable offense is whatever the majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.

As the legislature of my state has thought proper to bring my name forward without consulting me, I mean to be silent, and let the people do as seemeth unto them.

I'm not going to talk about who I voted for.

In politics, you're safest when you're saying as little as possible. You're safest when you've got your talking points and you stick to them like glue, even if it means repeating yourself over and over.

Previous candidates who get elected are almost always sobered by the office and the responsibility they take on. Donald Trump shows no evidence of that. He's the same Trump that he was when he was host of his reality TV show. He's the same Trump that he was when he was a candidate.

For the longest time in Denmark I didn't want to say what I was politically. I thought it was irrelevant.

What a President may do as a matter of expediency or extremity may never reach a definitive constitutional decision.

How odd that Americans, and not just their presidents, have come to think of their Constitution as something separable from the government it's supposed to constitute. In theory, it should be as binding on rulers as the laws of physics are on engineers who design bridges; in practice, its axioms have become mere options. Of course engineers don't have to take oaths to respect the law of gravity; reality gives them no choice. Politics, as we see, makes all human laws optional for politicians.

When you're talking with a person at this level of the government, at the very highest level, I think you have to be very discreet because he, President Clinton, is very aware that anything he says publicly can have a profound impact on American politics and on world politics.

There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it.

Other things being equal, I would much prefer a temperate man [for public office], to an intemperate one; still I do not make my vote depend absolutely upon the question of whether a candidate does or does not taste liquor.

When I say I don't get involved in politics, I merely mean that I don't talk to reporters about it.

It has proved politically wiser to set goals than to start programs.

Politicians often claim secrecy is necessary for good governance or national security.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

Mo Udall didn't want the presidency bad enough. He was too sane. He was a marvelous guy, but you had the feeling there was another Udall outside his body watching the candidate Udall who was too extravagant, telling him to cut it out.

If I tell him [President Abraham Lincoln] my [war] plans they will be in the New York Herald tomorrow morning. He can’t keep a secret.

Well, it's a - I don't want to disappoint you, but it's a time worn tradition of Australian Governments over many years not to get into any discussion about that aspect of intelligence matters.

Freedom is whatever the president says it is, pending revision.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

What happens in the White House stays in the White House.

One of the things I expect Mr. Trump would look for in a vice president is discretion.

We would never accept a prime minister saying, 'Well, maybe I'll intervene and use a trade issue as a link to an independent investigation into criminal activity.'

Questions of policy and expediency are unsusceptible of judicial cognizance and decision

I'm very mindful that I am representing the Philippines, so I cannot voice an opinion that contradicts that of our leader, Pres. Duterte.