A sign that a peace association is going adrift is its exclusion of other political parties, with whom it could collaborate effectively on most of the problems besetting the cause of peace. — Fredrik Bajer
We had the opposition of virtually the entire Democratic leadership in every state in this country. — Bernie Sanders
Any opposition not based on rationalism or science or experience will one day or other, reveal the fraud, selfishness, lies and conspiracies. — Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose — George Orwell
Every nation has its war party... It is commercial, imperialistic, ruthless. It tolerates no opposition. — Robert M. La Follette
To oppose corruption in government is the highest obligation of patriotism. — G. Edward Griffin
If you have no opposition in the place you serve, you're serving in the wrong place. — G. Campbell Morgan
Any great change must expect opposition, because it shakes the very foundation of privilege. — Lucretia Mott
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it. — Edward R. Murrow
Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy. — Harry Belafonte
The U.K. needs a strong opposition, and Labour shows no signs of being capable of being that. The SNP is filling that void and will go on seeking to do that. — Nicola Sturgeon
Politics is like boxing - you try to knock out your opponents. — Idi Amin
We already have a sabbatical system. It's called opposition, and I've had enough of it. — Nigel Lawson
The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them in parliament. — Vladimir Lenin
There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution. — John Adams
Before the war is ended, the war party assumes the divine right to denounce and silence all opposition to war as unpatriotic and cowardly. — Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
Politics is the gizzard of society, full of grit and gravel, and the two political parties are its opposite halves - sometimes split into quarters - which grind on each other. Not only individuals but states have thus a confirmed dyspepsia. — Henry David Thoreau
When words are both true and kind they can change the world.
I am sorry to upset my colleagues by saying we wasted four years in opposition, but if you do get so badly defeated as a party you do have to face up to some painful facts and you do have to change. — Kenneth Clarke
We just have to be crystal clear that if we were to abandon all the reforms made over some very painful years in the Labour party, we would be consigned back to opposition. — Patricia Hewitt
Some politicians are aware of the Bill of Rights. It seems that the opposition party is far more likely to invoke it, to wave it in the air, this is what we saw from a lot of republicans during the Clinton Administration, and we are seeing the same from Democrats under Bush. — James Bovard
Be gentle with yourself, you're doing the best you can.
Reverse psychology is an awesome tool, I don't know if you guys know about it, but basically you can make someone think the opposite of what you believe, and that tricks them into doing something stupid. Works like a charm. — Steve Carell
If the national security is involved, anything goes. There are no rules. There are people so lacking in roots about what is properand what is improper that they don't know there's anything wrong in breaking into the headquarters of the opposition party. — Helen Gahagan Douglas
A blue dog, you know, is the opposite of a yellow dog. And a yellow dog was somebody who was willing to follow his party even when he knew it was wrong. — Mike Thompson
A political party is dying before our eyes-and I don't mean the Democrats. I'm talking about the mainstream media, which is being destroyed by the opposition. — Howard Fineman
Political Opponents Quotes
Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponent will do it for you. — Mark Twain
I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience. — Ronald Reagan
In today’s politics, if you forget that your perception of reality has probably been at least a little manipulated, and your opponents are behaving the way they are based on a perception of reality that’s different from your own — you’re bound to get things wrong. — Tim Urban
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents. — Winston Churchill
The art of politics consists in knowing precisely when it is necessary to hit an opponent slightly below the belt. — Konrad Adenauer
Often dismissed or underestimated by political opponents, President Reagan had the most valuable weapon in the political arsenal: a bond with the people. — William L. Jenkins
Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.
I am an opponent of war and of war preparations and an opponent of universal military training and conscription; but entirely apart from that issue, I hold that segregation in any part of the body politic is an act of slavery and an act of war. — Bayard Rustin
Any time an elected official in the world we're in today that appears so dysfunctional challenges a core constituency not of their opponent but of their own political base, I think we should pause and give them credit. — Jeb Bush
If supporters of equality for women want to vote for the best candidate, they must look to a person regardless of gender and must disregard the gender of political opponents. — Karen DeCrow
I understand the harsh feelings and sentiments from my opponents and their supporters because I myself have been defeated twice in my political life in the past and I understand very well it is hard to accept your own failure. — Chen Shui-bian
Opposition Parties Quotes
I've always been a bit ambitious, but I do think the Green Party is the real opposition. — Caroline Lucas
Opposition, n. In politics the party that prevents the government from running amuck by hamstringing it. — Ambrose Bierce
I will say that Bernie Sanders are the opposite end of the spectrum from Donald Trump. We see him leading right now in the Republican Party in an intractable way. — Rachel Maddow
Be the person your dog thinks you are.
To the one party, woman is always heresy and diabolical. To me, the opposite. — Vincent Van Gogh
Republicans have become the party of red, white and blue rose colored glasses. By drowning out criticism with USA! USA!, they prevent this country from healing itself where it needs healing, and that is the opposite of Country First. — Bill Maher
Hikes in the debt ceiling - without any political demands from the opposition party - had been routine until President Obama took office. — Juan Williams
The stronger you become, the gentler you will be.
We need a good strong opposition and I don't know whether it's any coincidence that we need Angela Eagle in Labour and we need Theresa May to lead the Conservative party, both of whom of course are women. — Anna Soubry
I see some parallels between then [Lincoln's era] and now. Certainly the division of ideologies between two parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. In 1865, the Democrats were the Conservatives and the Republicans were the progressives, and today it's just the opposite. — Steven Spielberg
John Prescott has made the government look greedy and ridiculous. Labour is seen as the corrupt party. The government has been fulfilling the old rule that oppositions do not win elections, governments lose them. — William Rees-Mogg
In every free and deliberating society, there must, from the nature of man, be opposite parties, and violent dissensions and discords; and one of these, for the most part, must prevail over the other for a longer or shorter time. — Thomas Jefferson
Government Opposition Quotes
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear. — Harry S Truman
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear. — Harry S. Truman
Pro and con are opposites, that fact is clearly seen. If progress means to move forward, then what does congress mean? — Nipsey Russell
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it's profits or so dependent on it's favors, that there will be no opposition from that class. — Mayer Amschel Rothschild
For us, the government of Venezuelan Nicolas Maduro is not a government that allows democratic plurality. It does not allow for there to be a real opposition, and that is not democratic. — Nayib Bukele
I came into politics because of my opposition to what a Tory Government was doing to the community I grew up in. — Nicola Sturgeon
Being polite is so rare these days, thats its often confused with flirting.
I think trading Bitcoin while reading twitter is a bad idea. The news that governments expect you to pay your taxes and abide by existing laws should not be driving panic in the marketplace. The main stream interpretations are almost always the opposite of the true implication. — Michael Saylor
We need a new kind of politics. Not the politics of governance, but the politics of resistance. The politics of opposition. The politics of joining hands across the world and preventing certain destruction. — Arundhati Roy
Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it. — Thomas Paine
Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments. — Plato
Political Resistance Quotes
A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within....for the traitor appears not to be a traitor...he rots the soul of a nation...he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
It is the intense spirituality of India, and not any great political structure or social organisation that it has developed, that has enabled it to resist the ravages of time and the accidents of history. — Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
A system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect — Vann R. Newkirk II
The opposite of courage in our society isn't cowardice, its conformity.
C. S. Lewis observed that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics. Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist. — Philip Yancey
Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? — Ronald Reagan
In order for peace to reign, one must speak the truth, and that is why I have spoken of a political abduction, ... ... Far from my own country, but in deep communion with all Haitians, including Haitians abroad, I continue to launch an appeal for peaceful resistance. — Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Watch what the idiots are doing, and do the opposite.
But I really resist categories – that naming is a closing down of meaning. Women's art, political art – those categorisations perpetuate a certain kind of marginality which I'm resistant to. But I absolutely define myself as a feminist. — Barbara Kruger
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. — Thomas Jefferson
What I say is, that the real non-resistants can believe in direct action only, never in political action. For the basis of all political action is coercion; even when the State does good things, it finally rests on a club, a gun, or a prison, for its power to carry them through. — Voltairine de Cleyre
Victory will never be found by taking the path of least resistance. — Winston Churchill
The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Indifference creates evil. Hatred is evil itself. Indifference is what allows evil to be strong, what gives it power. — Elie Wiesel
Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star. — E. E. cummings
Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, ut because you are.
I found enormous opposition to my religion. It's like if you want to strengthen your biceps, you lift heavy weight, as heavy as you can handle, and work your muscles against resistance until it grows strong. I had to do that with my religion. — Ricardo Montalban
Yin and yang, male and female, strong and weak, rigid and tender, heaven and earth, light and darkness, thunder and lightning, cold and warmth, good and evil...the interplay of opposite principles constitutes the universe. — Confucius
The opposite of love is not hate. It is fear. — Gary Zukav
It is funny that men who are supposed to be scientific cannot get themselves to realise the basic principle of physics, that action and reaction are equal and opposite, that when you persecute people you always rouse them to be strong and stronger. — Gertrude Stein
The Opposite of Love is not hate, but power — C. S. Lewis
One of the best ways to improve men's behaviour is to enlighten their minds: and today, against the strong opposition of the Church and the Establishment, Scientific Humanism is attempting to do just that. — Margaret E. Knight
If you learn to lead your life strategically and strongly, you can overcome the opposition. But running away, you never overcome anything. The pathway to enlightenment is for the warrior, the samurai. — Frederick Lenz
Political Parties Quotes
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power. — Dwight D. Eisenhower
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong. — Voltaire
The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles. — Eugene V. Debs
All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party. — Mao Zedong
The political lesson of Watergate is this: Never again must America allow an arrogant, elite guard of political adolescents to by-pass the regular party organization and dictate the terms of a national election. — Gerald R. Ford
The press must grow day in and day out - it is our Party's sharpest and most powerful weapon. — Joseph Stalin
I think the Republican party should be placed in drydock and have the barnacles scraped off its bottom. — Tallulah Bankhead
I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny-fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear. — Margaret Chase Smith
The great issues facing us today are not Republican issues or Democratic issues. The political parties can debate the means, but both parties must embrace the end objective, which is to make America great again. — Lee Iacocca
If you begin to consider yourself solely responsible to a political party, you're half-way to a dictatorship. — Clement Attlee
Political Opinions Quotes
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. — Thomas Jefferson
That's the one issue can't discuss.You can discuss abortion back and forth, discuss gun control back and forth. But you can't have a dissenting opinion in America (politics) on Israel. — David Duke
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas. — Joseph Stalin
Truth between candid minds can never do harm. — Thomas Jefferson
I had a right to my own political opinions. I am a Southern woman, born with Revolutionary blood in my veins. Freedom of speech and of thought were my birthright, guaranteed, signed and sealed by the blood of our fathers. — Rose O'Neal Greenhow
It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance. — Murray Rothbard
A well informed public opinion is essential to the growth of political and social awareness. Only he who is informed can comment intelligently on his nation's development and only by such comments can errors be corrected and progress stimulated — Haile Selassie
I am more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased exercise of political opinion - the only sure foundation and safeguard of republican government - would be exposed by any further increase of the already overgrown influence of corporate authorities. — Martin Van Buren
Political liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and in order for him to have this liberty the government must be such that one citizen cannot fear another citizen. — Baron de Montesquieu
Commencement oratory must eschew anything that smacks of partisan politics, political preference, sex, religion or unduly firm opinion. Nonetheless, there must be a speech: Speeches in our culture are the vacuum that fills a vacuum. — John Kenneth Galbraith
When feminism does not explicitly oppose racism, and when antiracism does not incorporate opposition to patriarchy, race and gender politics often end up being antagonistic to each other and both interests lose. — Kimberle Williams Crenshaw
My political position springs from my being a novelist. In so far as I am concerned, politics and the novel are an indivisible case and I can categorically state that I became politically committed because I am a novelist, not the opposite. — Ghassan Kanafani
In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat. — Leon Trotsky
Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creeds into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics. — Robert A. Heinlein
I am tolerant of all creeds. Yet if any sect suffered itself to be used for political objects I would meet it by political opposition. In my view church and state should be separate, not only in form, but fact. Religion and politics should not be mingled. — Millard Fillmore
Politics and merit are opposite ends of a spectrum. More political organizations are less productive, have less inequality, and top performers opt out. More merit-based organizations have higher productivity, more inequality, and higher odds of internal fracture. — Naval Ravikant
In order to get the power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness, but with qualities which are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, cruelty. — Leo Tolstoy
We must have more union members in this country to fight the political and business forces that are undermining workers in this country. The AFL-CIO has chosen the opposite approach by planning to throw even more money at politicians. — James P. Hoffa
It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say. — Abba Eban
Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth; and I am sure...we both value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our Constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to ourselves. — Thomas Jefferson
There is no other way to settle the Syrian conflict other than by strengthening the existing legitimate government agencies, support them in their fight against terrorism and, of course, at the same time encourage them to start a positive dialogue with the "healthy" part of the opposition and launch political transformations. — Vladimir Putin
Passion and courtesy are two polar opposite traits that serve to balance each other into a full-blooded whole. Without socialization, passion is a crude barbarian, and without passion, the elegant and polite are dead. Allow both passion and courtesy into your life in equal measure, and be complete. — Vera Nazarian
What is politics, after all, but the compulsion to preside over property and make others people's decisions for them? Liberty, the very opposite of ownership and control, cannot, then, result from political action, either at the polls or at the barricades, but rather evolves out of attitude. If it results from anything, it must be levity. — Tom Robbins
I see two opposite tendencies in Turkish society: people feel demoralized, they lose the interest in politics and retreat to their private lives; or they become very angry and even more politicized, and radicalized. Both trends are troublesome. — Elif Safak
A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence. — Arthur Miller
Being able to provoke a different point of view to the standard current ideological or political perspective as played out in conventional newspaper or radio reportage is what a public intellectual does. But it's not merely about being oppositional, because that's too negative. — Susie Orbach
We do not have time to play at "oppositions" at "conferences." We will keep our political opponents... whether open or disguised as "nonparty," in prison. — Vladimir Lenin
The highest form of patriotism is dissent. — Matthew Dowd
You just work really hard and scrutinize. What is it called in politics? "Opposition research"? You want to do the detective work on your client so to speak before your opponent can dig it up. We're vetting everything thoroughly. — James Ponsoldt
Posterity will do justice to that unprincipled maniac Gladstone - extraordinary mixture of envy, vindictiveness, hypocrisy and superstition; and with one commanding characteristic - whether Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition, whether preaching, praying, speechifying or scribbling - never a gentleman. — Benjamin Disraeli
Non-violent resistance implies the very opposite of weakness. Defiance combined with non-retaliatory acceptance of repression from one's opponents is active, not passive. It requires strength, and there is nothing automatic or intuitive about the resoluteness required for using non-violent methods in political struggle and the quest for Truth. — Mahatma Gandhi
He who dictates and formulates the words and phrases we use, he who is master of the press and radio, is master of the mind. Repeat mechanically your assumptions and suggestions, diminish the opportunity for communicating dissent and opposition. This is the formula for political conditioning of the masses. — Joost Meerloo
Politics follows the lines of physics: every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. — John Avlon
The link between domestic policy and international affairs is essential: We cannot say we care about domestic issues and we leave international politics, and the opposite is wrong as well. Both are connected and should be addressed together. — Tariq Ramadan
I did not suggest that Iran is a democracy; just the opposite. I talked about it being a repressive theocracy. What I think is indisputable is that even within this repressive regime, the political leaders there - including the Supreme Leader - are sensitive to the concerns of the population within bounds. — Barack Obama
We also have a lot of the same influences - we both read a lot of the beatniks. And yet what we actually do is almost exactly the opposite. His [ Hunter S. Thompson] political stuff is just wonderful, but basically nothing happens. — P. J. O'Rourke
It is hard to think of anything which more tragically and clearly exemplifies the phenomenon of good political intentions achieving the precise opposite of their aim. — A. N. Wilson
I don't consider this younger generation to be lost, quite the opposite, they must continue. It is up to them. The old political system no longer functions. — Enki Bilal
In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorizes its people; a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost. Instead, we must strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to extremists like ISIL, while pursuing the political solution necessary to solve Syria's crisis once and for all. — Barack Obama
What seems fair enough against a squalid huckster of bad liquor may take on a different face, if used by a government determined to suppress political opposition under the guise of sedition. — Learned Hand
If the government is vulnerable to public opinion, then famines are a dreadfully bad thing to have. You cant win many elections after a famine, and you dont like being criticized by newspapers, opposition parties in parliament, and so on. Democracy gives the government an immediate political incentive to act. — Amartya Sen
Congress suffers a great deal of criticism for its partisan acrimony. But while we may disagree politically, and air our opposition in this chamber, it is the conversation behind the scenes that cements and defines our relationships. — Kay Bailey Hutchison
Every politician, every member of the clerical profession, ought to incur the reasonable suspicion of being an interested supporter of false doctrines, who becomes angry at opposition, and endeavors to cast an odium on free inquiry. Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it. — Thomas Cooper
The unification of opposites which characterizes the commercial and political style is one of the many ways in which discourse and communication make themselves immune against the expression of protest and refusal. — Herbert Marcuse
The personal qualities necessary for attaining office are practically the opposite of those demanded by the office itself. The trouble with the damn system is that it selects for the skills needed to get elected, and nothing else. A test that you can only pass by cheating can't possibly select honest people. — James P. Hogan
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of political opposition quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about political opposition to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of political opposition quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
