politics quotes

Never trust an automatic pistol or a D.A.'s deal.
-- John Dillinger

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen
at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.
-- Herodotus

My father was a saint, I'm not.
-- Indira Gandhi

"It's a summons."
"What's a summons?"
"It means summon's in trouble."
-- Rocky and Bullwinkle

It is now 10 p.m. Do you know where Henry Kissinger is?
-- Elizabeth Carpenter

It is not the critic who counts, or how the strong man stumbled, or whether
the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the
man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and
blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again; who
knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, and who spends himself in a
worthy cause, and if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that
he'll never be with those cold and timid souls who never know either victory
or defeat.
-- Teddy Roosevelt

In Pierre Trudeau, Canada has finally produced a Prime Minister worthy of
assassination.
-- John Diefenbaker

If you took all of the grains of sand in the world, and lined
them up end to end in a row, you'd be working for the government!
-- Mr. Interesting

If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a deal faster.
-- The Duchess, "Through the Looking Glass"

I'm proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is
-- I could be just as proud for half the money.
-- Arthur Godfrey

"I'll carry your books, I'll carry a tune, I'll carry on, carry over,
carry forward, Cary Grant, cash & carry, Carry Me Back To Old Virginia,
I'll even Hara Kari if you show me how, but I will *not* carry a gun."
-- Hawkeye, M*A*S*H

"I'll rob that rich person and give it to some poor deserving slob.
That will *prove* I'm Robin Hood."
-- Daffy Duck, "Robin Hood Daffy", [1958, Chuck Jones]

I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one.
-- Marcus Procius Cato

I would rather be a serf in a poor man's house and be above ground than
reign among the dead.
-- Achilles, "The Odessey", XI, 489-91

I would like the government to do all it can to mitigate, then, in
understanding, in mutuality of interest, in concern for the common good,
our tasks will be solved.
-- Warren G. Harding

I went to my mother and told her I intended to commence a different life. I
asked for and obtained her blessing and at once commenced the career of a
robber.
-- Tiburcio Vasquez

I was offered a job as a hoodlum and I turned it down cold. A thief is
anybody who gets out and works for his living, like robbing a bank or
breaking into a place and stealing stuff, or kidnapping somebody. He really
gives some effort to it. A hoodlum is a pretty lousy sort of scum. He
works for gangsters and bumps guys off when they have been put on the spot.
Why, after I'd made my rep, some of the Chicago Syndicate wanted me to work
for them as a hood -- you know, handling a machine gun. They offered me
two hundred and fifty dollars a week and all the protection I needed. I
was on the lam at the time and not able to work at my regular line. But
I wouldn't consider it. "I'm a thief," I said. "I'm no lousy hoodlum."
-- Alvin Karpis, "Public Enemy Number One"

I steal.
-- Sam Giancana, explaining his livelihood to his draft board

Easy. I own Chicago. I own Miami. I own Las Vegas.
-- Sam Giancana, when asked what he did for a living

I think the world is run by C students.
-- Al McGuire

I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation,
indivisible,
with liberty
and justice for all.
-- Francis Bellamy, 1892