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

July 14, 2025
How can you govern a country that has 246 varieties of cheese?
October 9, 2025
Being an MP feeds your vanity and starves your self-respect.
April 16, 2025
To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.
Page 79 of 122