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afford a fairly ignorant presidency now."
-- Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), 1989
"The greatest leaders in fighting for an integrated America in the twentieth century were in the Democratic Party. The fact is, it was the liberal wing of the Democratic Party that ended segregation. The fact is that it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who gave hope to a nation that was in despair and could have slid into dictatorship. And the fact is, every Republican has much to learn from studying what the Democrats did right."
-- Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), 1995
"I think one of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, obedient, loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words, which would be great around a campfire but are lousy in politics."
-- Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
"Liberalism is trust of the people, tempered by prudence; conservatism, distrust of people, tempered by fear."
-- William Ewart Gladstone, British prime minister
"Ireland, Ireland. That cloud in the west, that coming storm."
-- William Ewart Gladstone, British prime minister
"You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side."
-- William Ewart Gladstone, British prime minister, (speech on the Reform Bill, 1866)
"All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes."
-- William Ewart Gladstone, British prime minister
"When ideas fail, words come in very handy."
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"All other things being equal, a bald man cannot be elected President of the United States."
-- Vic Gold
"If Columbus had had an advisory committee he would probably still be at the dock."
-- Arthur J. Goldberg
"The political arena leaves one no alternative; one must either be a dunce or a rogue."
-- Emma Goldman
"I won't say that the papers misquote me, but I sometimes wonder where Christianity would be today if some of those reporters had been Matthew, Mark, Luke and John."
-- Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)
"If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government."
-- Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)
"It's a great country, where anybody can grow up to be president . . . except me."
-- Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)
"Politics [is] the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order."
-- Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)
"A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away."
-- Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)
"You don't need to be 'straight' to fight for your country. You just need to shoot straight."
-- Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)
"In America you can say anything you want -- as long as it doesn't have any effect."
-- Paul Goodman
"People come to Washington believing it's the center of power. I know I did. It was only much later that I learned that Washington is a steering wheel that's not connected to the engine."
-- Richard Goodwin
"Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind."
-- Mikhail Gorbachev
."When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home,/Let him combat for that of his neighbors;/Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome,/And get knocked on his head for his labors./To do good to mankind is the chivalrous plan,/And is always as nobly requited;/Then battle for freedom wherever you can,/And, if not shot or hanged, you'll get knighted."
-- George Gordon, Lord Byron
"I have no consistency, except in politics; and that probably arises from my indifference to the subject altogether."
-- George Gordon, Lord Byron
"No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out."
-- Vice President Al Gore
"In a Republican district I was a Republican. In a Democratic district I was a Democrat. And in a doubtful district, I was Doubtful. But I was always for Erie."
-- Jay Gould (chief owner of the Erie Railroad.)
"I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."
-- Jay Gould, 1886
"I have the most reliable friend you can have in American politics, and that is ready money."
-- Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX)
"Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate."
-- Ulysses S. Grant
"Labor disgraces no man, but occasionally men disgrace labor."
-- Ulysses S. Grant ~
"I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution."
-- Ulysses S. Grant
"The bottom line is, there have been a lot of nuts elected to the United States Senate."
- Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA)
"More things in politics happen by accident or exhaustion than happen by conspiracy."
-- Jeff Greenfield, CNN political analyst
"Victory has 1,000 fathers; defeat has 1,000 kibitzers."
-- Jeff Greenfield, CNN political analyst
"If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press will likely be not that it was a terrible thing to do, but rather that in a statement made six years before, he had gone on the record as being opposed to matricide."
-- Meg Greenfield, political columnist
"Everybody's for democracy in principle. It's only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections."
-- Meg Greenfield
"A wise government knows how to enforce with temper, or to conciliate with dignity."
-- George Grenville, British prime minister
"I can hardly keep wondering at my own folly in thinking it worthwhile to leave my books and garden, even for one day's attendance in the House of Commons."
-- William Wyndam Grenville, British Prime Minister
"The trouble with the Labour Party is that they don't really believe in Socialism, but they cannot wholeheartedly approve of private enterprise either."
-- Joseph Grimond, British Liberal Party leader
"In bygone days, commanders were taught that when in doubt, they should march their troops towards the sound of gunfire. I intend to march my troops towards the sound of gunfire."
-- Joseph Grimond, British Liberal Party leader
"A liberal is a conservative who's been arrested."
-- John Grisham, The Brethren
"Leaders often find themselves temporarily alone."
-- Senator Ernest Gruening (D-AK)
"Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms."
-- Che Guevara
"Many will call me an adventurer -- and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes."
-- Che Guevara
"The warning message we sent the Russians was a calculated ambiguity that would be clearly understood."
-- Alexander Haig
"In a confrontation with the politics of power, the soft center has always melted away."
-- Lord Hallsham
"The English and, more latterly, the British, have the habit of acquiring their institutions by chance or inadvertence, and shedding them in a fit of absentmindedness."
-- Lord Hallsham
"The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct permanent share in the government.... Can a democratic assembly who annually revolve in the mass of the people be supposed steadily to pursue the public good?"
-- Alexander Hamilton
"Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike."
-- Alexander Hamilton
"A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing."
-- Alexander Hamilton
"Learn to think continentally."
-- Alexander Hamilton
"Britain is not a country that is easily rocked by revolution .... In Britain our institutions evolve. We are a Fabian Society writ large."
-- William Hamilton
"I don't know what to do or where to turn in this taxation matter. Somewhere there must be a book that tells all about it, where I could go to straighten it out in my mind. But I don't know where the book is, and maybe I couldn't read it if I found it."
-- Warren G. Harding
"I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my friends, my goddamned friends, they're the ones who keep me walking the floor at nights!"
-- Warren G. Harding
"I don't know much about Americanism, but it's a damn good word with which to carry an election."
-- Warren G. Harding
"The offhand decision of some commonplace mind high in office at a critical moment influences the course of events for a hundred years."
-- Thomas Hardy
"If I started worrying about how my constituents are going to react to every move I make, I wouldn't be able to do my job here. I'll do what I think is right and explain it later."
-- Ed Harris, Texas state legislator (D)
"Capital punishment is our society's recognition of the sanctity of human life."
-- Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
"In politics, being ridiculous is more damaging than being extreme."
-- Roy Hattersley
"Next to fried foods, the South has suffered most from oratory."
-- Rep. Brooks Hays (D-AR)
"A politician will do anything to keep his job -- even become a patriot."
-- William Randolph Hearst, editorial (1933).
"In politics you can't be true to all of your friends all of the time."
-- Perry S. Heath (RNC secretary, 1900-04)
"Socially, a journalist ranks somewhere between the madam of a whorehouse and a bartender. but spiritually he ranks with Galileo, for he knows the world is round."
-- Ben Hecht
"We need a president who's fluent in at least one language."
-- Buck Henry
"A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows."
-- "O. Henry" (William Sydney Porter)
"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual."
-- Frank Herbert
"Politics is like a race horse. A good jockey must know how to fall with the least possible damage."
-- Edouard Herriot
"What is politics but persuading the public to vote for this and support that and endure these for the promise of those?"
-- Gilbert Highet
"The mistakes made by Congress wouldn't be so bad if the next Congress didn't keep trying to correct them."
-- Cullen Hightower
"We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex--but Congress can."
-- Cullen Hightower
"Talk is cheap -- except when Congress does it."
-- Cullen Hightower
"Republicans are so empty-headed, they wouldn't make a good landfill.'
-- Jim Hightower, Texas Agriculture Commissioner
"When I entered politics, I took the only downward turn you could take from journalism."
-- Jim Hightower, Texas Agriculture Commissioner
"Even a little dog can piss on a big building."
-- Jim Hightower, Texas Agriculture Commissioner
"Politics isn't about left versus right; it's about top versus bottom."
-- Jim Hightower, Texas Agriculture Commissioner
"The middle of the road is for yellow lines and dead armadillos."
(Continued on page 11)
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