Quotes Library

June 2, 2025

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

Mario Cuomo (1932–2015), American Democratic politician and governor, New Republic, Washington, D.C, 8 April 1985, Jay p.107

Do you? Can you even imagine governing in poetry?

Of course, voting is an emotional act, so the process of wooing the voter naturally involves something akin to the poetic or romantic. Government involves moving a massive enterprise forward, and that means dealing with every sort of prosaic problem.


More Quotes

July 13, 2025
Rest breeds rust. German proverb.
March 20, 2025
No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision.
November 27, 2025
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
Page 110 of 124