A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation. – James Freeman Clarke, Sermon

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right. – H.L. Mencken, 1956

Political campaigns are designedly made into emotional orgies which endeavor to distract attention from the real issues involved, and they actually paralyze what slight powers of cerebration man can normally muster. – James Harvey Robinson, The Human Comedy, 1937