Politics unfortunately abounds in shams that must be treated reverentially for every politician who would succeed. If you are the sort of man whose stomach revolts against treating shams reverentially, you will be well advised to stay out of politics altogether and set up as a prophet; your prophecies may perhaps sow good seed for some future harvest. But as a politician you would be impotent. For at any given time the bulk of your countrymen believe firmly and devoutly, not only in various things that are worthy of belief, but also in illusions of one kind and another; and they will never submit to have their affairs managed for them by one who appears not to share in their credulity. .F. S. Oliver
About This Quote
Those who wish to enter into the business of politics should study first the art of inspiring belief in other people’s minds. If they are not able to do that, they should be content to remain in obscurity, and believe that they will be remembered even if they never leave any mark upon the world.
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