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

March 14, 2025
[Of political life] The hatreds which sound so real when you read the words, which look so true when you see their scornful attitudes
November 10, 2025
No one is decently treated in poor clothes.
October 17, 2025
[When asked what he had done during the French Revolution] I survived.
Page 43 of 124