Political Quotes

Benjamin Franklin: “The retail politician's anxious thought Deems this side always right, and that stark nought; He foams with censure; with…”

On the record
The retail politician's anxious thought Deems this side always right, and that stark nought; He foams with censure; with applause he raves-- A dupe to rumours, and a tool of knaves; He'll want no type his weakness to proclaim, While such a thing as fools-cap has a name.
Said by
Benjamin Franklin
Missouri

Editor's note · Context

Franklin critiques the fickleness of politicians and their susceptibility to public opinion.

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May 8, 1753

Few of their Children in the Country learn English . . . The Signs in our Streets have Inscriptions in both Languages, and in some places only [their language] . . . In short, unless the Stream of their Importation could be turned…

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To strangers he was cold and reserved; but where he was intimate, no man indulged to more pleasantry and good humour.

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They have no profitable appointments, but a mere payment of daily wages, such as are scarcely equivalent to their expences, so that having no chance for great places and enormous salaries or pensions, as in some countries, there is no…

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Yet had I gone at 70, it would have cut off 12 of the most active years of my life, employed too in matters of the greatest importance; but whether I have been doing good or mischief, is for time to discover.

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