Beware the politically obsessed. They are often bright and interesting, but they have something missing in their natures; there is a hole, an empty place, and they use politics to fill it up. It leaves them somehow misshapen.
I would walk over my grandmother if necessary to get Nixon reelected!
There is a holy mistaken zeal in politics as religion. By persuading others, we convince ourselves.
The vigour of government is essential to the security of liberty. . . . a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government.
I think particularly on the left, progressives wanted more bombast and more.
Conservatives don’t seem to criticize their own as much as liberals do. It’s not that they don’t do it. It’s that they don’t do it with the same zeal and enthusiasm.
Once the Republicans get rolling, they assume they're going to win everything. They are zealots, and zealots assume the last five percent of whatever their plan is will be taken care of by their own greatness or momentum or divinity.
Good ends can rarely be attained in politics without passion.
Private passions grow tired and wear themselves out; political passions, never.
