Best Political Philosophy Quotes

"Optimism as a political prescription is not something that I have a lot of respect for. True optimism is what leftism is about because it's about thinking that human flourishing can go so much further than what we have right now."

"Ultimately, as cringe as this sounds, bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship is actually a very important, very American idea."

"John Stewart Mill was just incredibly influential when it came to the formation of contemporary political ideas of freedom and liberty."

"The only political system consistent with a morality of individualism is a political system of freedom."

"Classical liberalism and libertarian socialism can be regarded as adapting the basic reasoning of classical liberalism to a very different social order."

"Democracy is the only way for there to be peace."

"A country without free speech is not a democracy. Free speech is a prerequisite to democracy."

"In reality, socialism is based on two fundamental principles: democratic control of the means of production, something which I sincerely believe in, and decommodification."

"Bring the sovereignty back down as close to the individual as possible."

"True liberals and true conservatives are united in one respect: we believe in the sovereignty of the individual."

"In the 21st century, good nationalists must also be globalists."

"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

"The job of government is to preserve certain key liberties. Those key liberties pre-exist the government."

"Power should be as close to the people affected by it as possible."

"In the end, the political sphere under socialism will consist of a bedrock of individual rights that are guaranteed to all people."

"It's one thing to put restrictions on what people can say... but it's a completely different thing to require people to espouse a particular political stance."

"If the idea of America doesn't work, what's option two to America?"

"Democracy: having a say in who governs you... the big question in political philosophy: who governs the governor? Well, in our case, it's the people."

"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

"Liberty trumps totalitarianism, and we see this in the real world, too."

"The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the haves on how to hold power; Rules for Radicals is written for the have-nots on how to take it away."

"Democracy is important, freedom is important, and in my mind, democracy and what we consider to be democracy has been evolving for a long time now."

"Democracy in the political sense absolutely is a good thing, especially compared to the alternative."

"I believe in peace through strength, and I think appeasement invites conflict."

"Liberalism posits a vision of the world's built off individual freedom."

"We rightly say that the state should be constrained... an arbitrary exercise of state power is evil."

"Democracy should be in your hands; that is, after all, what democracy means."

"The liberal democracies are the exception, not the rule."

"More freedom for one is more freedom for another." - Mr. Pierre Poiliev

"Eisenhower himself claimed to represent, in his own words, a political philosophy of 'progressive conservatism.'"

"The philosophy of the left is that man is perfectable, that you can make it through life with no suffering, and that's government's responsibility. It's flawed to the core."

"Free nations are simply more successful than any other model that's been tried in the history of civilization."

"The preservation of property being the end of government, it necessarily supposes and requires that people should have property."

"The founders were very wary of power being misused; they wanted to spread it thinly over a society, they wanted no one to have too much power or to be able to hang on to it for too long."

"A liberal believes in freedom... a social liberal believes in certain social policies to help grant people equal opportunity."

"All tops-down solutions end up fascist and totalitarian over time or just bad and not quite right."

"John Rawls thought that a just society could be designed by a committee of people who do not know what position they will occupy in that society."

"A Libertarian party that respects the rights of the individual, that enshrines the rights of the individual, guarantees them within the confines of the law, and recognizes they have to be threatening to those that would seek to destroy and steal the power from the people."

"Confucius was the creator of a political and moral philosophy that was designed to bring harmony to the chaos of his times."

"Democracy is the worst form of government...with the exception of every other type of government that's ever been seen."

"John Locke favored the consent of the governed... he believed in life, liberty, and property."

"Human beings are rational and they should be decent and peaceful, requiring a certain amount of tolerance to trade and live together, underpinning the commitment to democratic republican politics."

"Liberalism took surprisingly long to develop since it goes against the grain of history."

"Every political philosophy is based on a certain conception of human nature."

"The point of democracy is to prevent violence from occurring."

"I don't want to own the libs because I consider myself a lib... What it really is, is a view of society where you value liberty or you value authority. It's liberalism against authoritarianism."

"Wanting the government to make people's lives better is statism 101."

"As a conservative, you deal with the world as it is."

"The maximum amount of freedom for the most people is my political operation."

"Politics is the job of producing a strong and beautiful utopia for the future of society."

"Politics is not an end but a means; the aim is the happiness of the citizens."

"Immigration or you can have a welfare state, but you can't have both."

"Federalism is not just some quaint word... it's actually central to the health of this Republic."

"Politics should not be your life. Government should be so small that it can't do everything you want, and it can't take everything from you, you know."

"Conservatism ultimately, what are we conserving? We're conserving the idealism of the American Founding."

"Rights-based conservatism has really good points...where common good conservatives make the point...we have a declining culture and country right now."

"What they don't realize is that without something at the center of conservatism, civilization collapses."

"Revolution? No, just peace, order, and good government."

"There is no final victory, comrades, and there is no final defeat."

"Authority and domination are not self-justifying; they have to justify themselves, and if they can't, which is usually the case, they should be dismantled."

"The Constitution needs to be protected, not changed or disregarded, but resurrected."

"The classical definition of a liberal was somebody who argued for and defended human liberty."

"I believe in massive institutional change and decentralization of power."

"Governments should be functions of our will; we should not be the puppets of government."

"Liberalism allows for a whole bunch of different economic and political philosophies to exist within it."

"A republic means a state, which is for the public, which sounds wonderful. Republic, res publica, rzeczpospolita in Polish, respublika, if you insist in Ukrainian. It means the common matter. But who is the public? Is the tricky question for republics."

"We want to govern ourselves. For the people, by the people."

"The roots of the tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants."

"The contrast between free and unfree society has never been clearer, and free nations must work together to confront authoritarian threats."

"Democracy is not simply about the production of economic goods; moral virtues are central to what matters about democracy."

"Conservatism is progressivism driving the speed limit."

"The whole idea of this country is that the power actually belongs to the people."

"Liberalism must be intolerant of all intolerance."

"Niccolò Machiavelli was the opposite of a Machiavellian."

"When you limit government, you maximize freedom. When you maximize freedom, you maximize prosperity."

"There's no democracy without independent media."

"I think that there's a trope in politics that actually isn't true which is that all of us sort of want the same endpoint we just have different ways of getting there."

"We're in a position now where all the institutions of authority are corrupt and actuated against the right, and people on the right need to adjust their political psychology in order to digest this new reality."

"We believe in limited government, we believe in freedom, and we believe that people should be able to make their own choices about their lives."

"Progressivism is basically a luxury of a bored, safe, and prosperous people who have lost touch with necessity and who face no serious threats."

"When this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved and tyranny is erected on its ruins."

"Is liberalism dead at the end of this thing? You know, this is my life's work."

"We could bring a halt to the presumption that the state should extend Itself by Dent of its hypothetical moral superiority to the governance of how we heat our houses and feed and provision our own families."

"We just want the ability to govern ourselves the way that we want to be governed."

"I'm a proud progressive and a cold-blooded capitalist."

"Liberty is powerful in its transformative power."

"Three books that changed your way of thinking: Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt, The Quest for Cosmic Justice by Thomas Sowell, and The Federalist Papers."

"The power should be with the person, not the state."

"One of the specific things I like to read a lot... we're going more toward limited government and toward giving power to the people."

"Democracy is not a football you don't throw it around."

"Without terror, virtue has no power." - Robespierre

"Socialism, if done correctly, is inherently democratic."

"Democracy dies without meritocracy." - Tim Cast

"The best government is the government that is near the people."

"The truth is a democracy persists only as long as it's fair."

"The constitution effectively thought that it could minimize the reality of power."

"The key to maintaining [freedom and prosperity] is a coherent America that believes in its values."

"Nationalism and autocracy, these are losers' philosophies."

"Liberalism is not just a political stance, it's far deeper."

"Legitimacy is ultimately decided in the minds of the population."

"Big God, small government; big government, small God."

"When government is the first resort, bad things happen."

"Small government is the major reason America has given more people more freedom and more opportunity to live a better life than any other country has."

"If there was one book that I would have everyone read... it's Jon Stewart Mills' 'On Liberty'."

"To be a good nationalist, you also have to be a globalist. There is no contradiction."

"You either believe in the Constitution or you don't."

"The state cannot give you any kind of rights."

"Checks and balances prevent the decay into Anarchy." - Alexander Hamilton

"I think Adams was the revolutions greatest man of ideas."

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton

"The heart of the word progressive is progress."

"Power remains strong when it remains in the dark, exposed to the sunlight it begins to evaporate." - Noam Chomsky

"Plato thought that democracy isn't as good as it sounds because the skills you need to rule are different from the skills you need to win an election."

"Liberalism is a luxury of those not in conflict."

"WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH."

"In a contest between prosperity and freedom, prosperity can surely be regained; freedom once lost can never be."

"Libertarianism is simply the rejection of the use of force."

"The deliberate scrubbing of the elements of fascism that make it so vile and horrible."

"No empire by definition is a good thing because what it actually is about is about someone has to be oppressed to be history."

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts."

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people."

"Democracy does not require perfect equality."

"Conservatism means gratitude. It's gratitude for things that work, like philosophies that work, cultural foundations that work, policies that work."

"The core of the anarchist tradition, as I understand it, is that power is always illegitimate unless it proves itself to be legitimate."

"I think that all states are inherently coercive propaganda machines."

"A government that's of the People by the people and for the people."

"Power corrupts and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely."

"If a government has the power to give you everything, they also have the power to take it all away at a moment's notice."

"The west as a liberal democratic force no longer exists."

"More government and more laws are not the answer to our perceived problems."

"I will continue to put people above politics."

"As classical liberals and conservatives, you want to prevent disaster and deliver prosperity and joy."

"The nation-state was God's idea. It seeks to transcend The Dilemma of Empire and Anarchy by retaining what is most vital in each while discarding what makes each of them most dangerous."

"Neoliberalism: 'Freedom for the pike, not for the minnows.'"

"The state is dependent on the individual to exactly the same degree."

"Reagan was really about this bootstraps meritocracy colorblind individualism."

"Courage and risk-taking are essential for maintaining a democracy." - Michael Kennedy

"Our job is to reject identity politics and try and replace it with better ideas and idea in aspirational politics."

"Government exists only to secure, preserve, and protect natural rights."

"Conscious politics is about going meta, going beyond ideological positions."

"When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is Liberty."

"As lord acton once said, power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

"Government is never a source of goods; everything that government gives you it must first take from you."

"What about the cult of personality when it comes to all these political philosophies that we're talking about?"

"The whole idea of taxation without representation is tyranny."

"Equity meaning equal outcome is impossible to achieve absent tyranny."

"I'm a progressive because I believe in progress. I believe we can do better."

"All of this stuff really matters... and we may lose the republic but the republic will never die as long as it lives in each of us... and our children."

"The term anarchism is used to cover quite a range of political ideas."

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed sometimes."

"The best candidate for me is the candidate who says in America rights come from God."

"Imagine having the government so little involved in your life that you don't care who's in charge of it."

"Government should be the last thing that's getting involved in all these things."

"Democracy is not just about voting... it's a moral relationship of one person to another."

"she has taught me that Justice is meaningless without Freedom..."

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again." - Thomas Paine

"Rose, Oro, or Akira because they are not out yet and we haven't even really played with Rose ourselves."

"I don't think the reset ever could have worked...because there's literally nothing that we do which is that important inside Russia."

"I think we have a window right now to reinstill the values of the American Revolution."

"These ideas do not belong to any one man, they are bigger than any of us. It's bigger than Donald Trump, it is bigger than me."

"You intervene with the government in the name of doing good, you crowd out private alternatives, and then you point to the fact that private alternatives have been crowded out to grow government even more."

"I do not trust a government that does not trust its people."

"Democracy is the political enactment of a spiritual idea that all of us have a spark of the divine, therefore we ought to have a voice in our democracy."

"Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional American values, and a strong national defense."

"Does it do good is not a left-wing question. Does it make me feel good about me? That's central."

"Populism is a state of mind and empathy, not a billionaire's exclusive club."

"Centralized Authority and the dictatorial power that we grant to somebody under any circumstances should put horror in all of our hearts."

"Conservatism wins because it's ultimately empowering."

"America is the only government in the world that is a self-correcting government."

"There can be no freedom without spiritual freedom, without human beings being able to choose." - Mikhail Gorbachev

"When I think of leftism broadly or being on the left, I think of the promotion of human equality, the idea that people shouldn't be better or worse than other people, that we should get along and that we should be treated equally."

"It's one of the great founding in Liberal ideas that we engage with each other..."

"Socialism in one person, although that of course is capitalism."

"Extremism in the pursuit of Liberty is novice; moderation in the defense of Liberty is no virtue."

"Democracy for everybody or democracy for nobody."

"I always believed that there's more that unites these United States of America than could ever divide us."

"If we were just having a moral argument about whether it would be better to push the socialism button or to slowly achieve some basic reforms, obviously you should push the socialism button."

"We must abandon once and for all the illusion that we can ever again isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity."

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy." - Winston Churchill

"Why should we have to settle for a benevolent dictator instead of just not having a dictator at all..."

"We should think of our politicians not as our leaders but as our followers."

"People need to be able to hold the power to account. That's the only way you can actually run the country."

"If you're not thinking in terms of nationhood, you're not thinking seriously of being liberated."

"A democracy that can't change its mind ceases to be a democracy."

"Government is not the solution to our problems, but government is the problem itself."

"Once you take democracy and make it into a marketplace, you get rid of some pretty fundamental principles of democracy."

"Power to the people: Herbert's belief in empowering individuals over bureaucratic control."

"Freedom is a hard sell, the friends of freedom have always been rare."

"For me, politics and public life are about transformational change, not just winning elections."

"More important than safety is our individual rights and our individual liberty."

"Extremism is only extremism if you take the position of having a moral compass and of being a moderate person." - Anthony

"It's a strange concept to hear the other side, to give people a platform that you totally might fundamentally disagree with, then have a conversation about it."

"In the last paragraph of the Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels call for a forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions."

"It's a system of government that makes short-term sacrifices for the long-term game."

"Democracy just actually is the answer to all this."

"Anarchism... requires and demands a kind of responsibility... you can't really be an anarchist and blame everything on everybody else."

"This is like the definition of self-determination, the definition of anti-imperialism."

"Compromise with tyranny will always get you more tyranny."

"My view is government is there to protect individual rights. Otherwise, leave you alone."

"The reason we have a republic is to protect the minority from the whims of an angry and vicious majority."