Quotes Library

December 4, 2025

Reader, suppose you were an idiot; and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (“Mark Twain”) (1835–1910), American writer, in Des MacHale, Wit (1997), p.198

Assuming you are an elected politician, do any of your colleagues qualify as idiots? Assuming you are a wannabe, does Twain induce second thoughts? How do you propose to demonstrate you are not an idiot, once elected?

The attention paid in today’s media (both traditional and social) to what in years past would have been obscure members of Congress allows many more people to see the truth in Twain’s statement.


More Quotes

February 4, 2025
00:50
The Falklands thing [the ten-week undeclared war in 1981 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over a few
September 15, 2025
It may be that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong—but that is the way to bet.
June 20, 2025
01:07
Politics is a battle against process, just as life is.
Page 11 of 123