The greatest of all faults in a politician, and in any leader, is the failure to recognize that charisma has nothing to do with ability, excellence, or goodness. In fact, charisma enables far more the evils of the universe than great and worthy accomplishments, Give me pedestrian accomplishments over charisma any day. L.E. Modesitt Jr.
On the night of New Year’s Day, I thought of a wonderful New Year’s resolution for the men who run the world: get to know the people who only live in it.
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Martha Gellhorn
The difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician thinks about the next election while the statesman think about the next generation.
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James Freeman Clarke
He was a consummate politician-- which is to say he was given to expedient speech and lacked even a vestigial spine.
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Nick Taylor
Nothing so removes a man from his inner, mysterious, real life, nothing makes him so deaf and dumb as the picture of these petty passions and petty crimes which calls itself the world of politics.
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Vladimir Odoyevsky
Only one thing to it: a strong stomach. The guts to gladhand a man you're going to stab in the back; pledge allegiance to principles you stomp on every day; righteously denounce some despot in the press and sell him arms under the table. The...
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Anonymous
More Quotes By L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Hatred is a form of faith, distilled by passion to remove all rationality.
In politics, looking at the big picture is the most convenient way to avoid getting bogged down in annoying little details, like the facts. That's why politicians always talk in generalities, such as "balancing the budget" or "obtaining justice under law" or "maintaining meaningful employment,...
The only absolute truth is change, and death is the only way to stop change. Life is a series of judgments on changing situations, and no ideal, no belief fits every solution. Yet humans need to believe in something beyond themselves. Perhaps all intelligences do....
I was trying to foment a little dissension.' He paused. 'No, that's too flippant. How about trying to make the system less warlike–injecting a little love?' He snorted. 'Through violence, of course, like all religious reformers.
Can violence and the use of force to effect change upon the universe be left to the young? Do they see what was, what is, and what might yet be? Have they suffered, watched evil fall upon the good, or good upon the evil? Or...
