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

March 15, 2025
Men ought to pay a great deal more attention to substance and realities than to ceremonies.
January 18, 2025
To succeed pre-eminently in English public life it is necessary to conform either to the popular image of a bookie or of a
July 19, 2025
The House of Commons is the greatest closed shop of all
Page 114 of 123