Political Legacy Quotes

Do not judge a politician until the coffin closes.

In the Soviet Union those who once extolled Stalin to the skies have now in one sweep condemned him to purgatory … Stalin’s mistakes amounted to only 30 percent of the whole and his achievement to 70 percent. On balance he was a great Marxist.

I have never been a Conservative, or at least not since being a young teenager. My father voted Conservative, and even his doing that was a hangover from the '50s and '60s, which may have been an influence on me.

This is probably the greatest thing that I have ever accomplished but I fear that we Democrats have lost the South for the rest of my lifetime and probably you lifetime as well.

A politician thinks of the next election; the statesman thinks of the next generation

Posterity will do justice to that unprincipled maniac Gladstone - extraordinary mixture of envy, vindictiveness, hypocrisy and superstition; and with one commanding characteristic - whether Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition, whether preaching, praying, speechifying or scribbling - never a gentleman.

You know, for one glorious half hour, I was the mother of the president-elect.

[Theodore] Roosevelt is the most perfectly equipped and the most effective politician thus far seen in the Presidency.

Barack Obama was elected during my second year of college, and save for his skin color, he had much in common with Bill Clinton: Despite an unstable life with a single mother, aided by two loving grandparents, he had made in his adulthood a family life that seemed to embody my sense of the American ideal.

A Senate chosen for six years will, in most instances, be an appointment for life, as the influence of such a body over the minds of the people will be coequal to the extensive powers with which they are vested, and they will not only forget, but be forgotten by their constituents.

I admire Obama.

I think it is very good for the country, for the world, and especially for the Democrats that Harry Reid is retiring.

Convention speeches are powerful tools to bend the curve of public opinion. George H. W. Bush's 1988 convention speech is a great example. His son's speech was also quite powerful.

Germany lost the Second World War. Fascism won it. Believe me, my friend.

Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot.

Ahmed Khomeini, son of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is the Mrs. Wilson of modern Iran.

The inaugural of Ronald Reagan, with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. And that was the greatest thing. Ronald Reagan and George Bush. That was - I still remember like it was yesterday.

Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.

Political prodigies are rare in a nation that grooms top leaders through decades of Communist Party road-testing and pageantry. And because Chairman Mao's cult of personality led the country into extremism, the Party spent the next three decades engineering its politicians to be as indistinguishable as possible.

The difference between a politician and a statesman is: a politician thinks of the next election and a statesman thinks of the next generation.

Nixon knew exactly what he wanted to accomplish in his four interviews with David Frost, quite apart from having his agent Irving Paul Lazar negotiate a terrific deal for him, with cash up front.

President Kennedy's life and death represent both what is possible in America, and all of the work left undone.

My father was the prime minister and we had Tamil Nadu's support.

Where is the democracy that British gave us? Ayub Khan robbed us of it. And what did he give us in return ? He gave us his own version of democracy which does not even deserve the name of democracy.

I think Ronald Reagan was the best President of my lifetime.