Quotes Library

December 15, 2025

If you want to know the depth and meanness of Human Nature, you have got to be a prime minister running a general election.

Sir John A. MacDonald (1815–1891), Canadian Conservative politician and first prime minister of Canada, in Des MacHale, Wit (1997)

Do you have any clue to what he is referring? Do you believe his point applies to elections in other countries? What meanness, if any, have you observed?

It’s not just at election time!


More Quotes

March 15, 2025
Men ought to pay a great deal more attention to substance and realities than to ceremonies.
May 8, 2025
Diplomacy is about surviving till the next century—politics is about surviving till Friday afternoon.
September 16, 2025
Experience attains many things which natural gifts alone could never attain.
Page 118 of 122