Even the Proctor Charlie Collective can get a little bit political…

A wise man does not try to hurry history.

— Adlai E. Stevenson

Bandits and governments ’ave so much in common that they might be interchangeable anywhere in the world…

— Terry Pratchett

Division is how evil operates.

— Lenny Duncan

Fear of finding oneself in bad company is not an expression of political purity; it is an expression of a lack of self-confidence.

— Arthur Koestler

For forms of government let fools contest, that which is best administered is best.

— Alexander Pope

Great reforms offend great interests.

— Winston Churchill

Ignorance and design are difficult to combat.

— George Washington

In politics the influence of imponderables is often greater than that of either military power or money.

Politics is the art of the possible.

— Otto von Bismarck

It is not power that corrupts but fear.

— Aung San Suu Kyi

It seems part of the human condition to always simplify in rhetoric while complicating in practice.

Political systems remain in flux because the dedicated moderate must always give way, eventually, to the passionate extremist.

— Proctor Charlie

Memory is inherently contentious and partisan: one man’s acknowledgment is another’s omission.

— Tony Judt

Never build a dungeon you wouldn’t be happy to spend the night in yourself.

— Terry Pratchett

People have a need for the externalization of evil. They have the need to think that there is somewhere an enemy boundlessly evil because this makes them feel boundlessly good.

Writing history is the common refuge of those who find themselves helpless in the face of the present.

— George Kennan

Politics brought forth, if not the worst in men, at least the worst in what people said about men.

— Benjamin Franklin

Politics is a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by a slow progression.

— Charles de Montesquieu

Some people are worried about the difference between right and wrong. I’m worried about the difference between wrong and fun.

What this country needs is fewer people who know what this country needs.

Politics is one more way to achieve power without merit or risk.

— P.J. O’Rourke (Editorial note: so is journalism – PC)

The best politics is right action.

— Mahatma Gandhi

The punishment of wise men who refuse to take part in the affairs of government is to live under the government of unwise men.

— Plato

The really dangerous people believe that they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous.

— Neil Gaiman

The spirit of place has an undeniable effect upon all of the ideas, as well as art and literature of a people.

— D. H. Lawrence

There is a great deal to be said for the status quo but this isn’t a position we could take publicly.

— John Foster Dulles

There is some danger in public life from stupid politicians; there is even more from politicians who are too clever.

— A.J.P. Taylor

Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

— George Bernard Shaw

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.

— George Santayana

Truth tellers transcend partisan affiliations.

— Andrew J. Bacevich

War cannot be divorced from politics for a single moment.

— Mao Tse-tung

Washington is a place where politicians don’t know which way is up and taxes don’t know which way is down.

— Robert Orben

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