#statesman

Master, tell us of the city of Orphalese, and of that land wherein you tarried those twelve years." And Almustafa was silent, and he looked away towards the hills and toward the vast ether, and there was a battle in his silence. Then he said: "My friends and my road-fellows, pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion. "Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own winepress. "Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful. "Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening. "Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except when its neck is laid between the sword and the block. "Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggle, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. "Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings again. "Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle. "Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation. ↗

— Kahlil Gibran

#religion #statesman #art

He has conferred on the practice of vacillation the aura of statesmanship. ↗

— Kenneth Baker

#conferred #practice #statesmanship

The statesman shears the sheep; the politician skins them. ↗

— Austin O'Malley

#shears #sheep #skins #statesman #them

He has not yet become an elder statesman, though his foreign policy credentials are considerable, but he is certainly our ancient mariner, forever tugging at our sleeve to let him tell his tale of what really happened. ↗

— Ronald Steel

#become #certainly #considerable #credentials #elder

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman. ↗

— George Santayana

#crime #dangerous #delight #merit #positive

A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation. ↗

— James Freeman Clarke

#generation #next #next election #politician #statesman

A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman. ↗

— Edmund Burke

#disposition #improve #preserve #standard #statesman

Today is the day for the complaining to end and for statesmanship to begin. Today I am taking action to cut state spending and balance the budget this year. ↗

— Chris Christie

#am #balance #begin #budget #complaining

The fastest way for a politician to become an elder statesman is to lose an election. ↗

— Earl Wilson

#elder #election #fastest #lose #politician

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few. ↗

— Benjamin Disraeli

#statesmanship #equality