Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.

Government and state can never be perfect because they owe their raison d'etre to the imperfection of man and can read more

Government and state can never be perfect because they owe their raison d'etre to the imperfection of man and can attain their end, the elimination of man's innate impulse to violence, only by recourse to violence, the very thing they are called upon to prevent.

A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time.

A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time.

It is the very essence of despotism that it can never afford to fail. This is what distinguishes it most read more

It is the very essence of despotism that it can never afford to fail. This is what distinguishes it most vitally from democracy. In a despotism there is no organized opposition which can take over the power when the Administration in office has failed. All the eggs are in one basket. Everything is staked on one coterie of men. When the going is good, they move more quickly and efficiently than democracies, where the opposition has to be persuaded and conciliated. But when they lose, there are no reserves. There are no substitutes on the bench ready to go out on the field and carry the ball. That is why democracies with the habit of party government have outlived all other forms of government in the modern world. They have, as it were, at least two governments always at hand, and when one fails they have the other. They have diversified the risks of mortality, corruption, and stupidity which pervade all human affairs. They have remembered that the most beautifully impressive machine cannot run for very long unless there is available a complete supply of spare parts.

Only enemies speak the truth. Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.

Only enemies speak the truth. Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.

The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is read more

The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt.

When you make as many speeches and you talk as much as I do and you get away from the read more

When you make as many speeches and you talk as much as I do and you get away from the text, it's always a possibility to get a few words tangled here and there.

If school results were the key to power, girls would be running the world.

If school results were the key to power, girls would be running the world.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.