Bernard Crick Quotes

The politician has no more use for pride than Falstaff had for honour.

The praise of free men is worth having, for it is the only praise which is free from either servility or condescension.

In an abstract but real sense, Marxism arose through the breakdown first of religion and then of 'reason' as single sources of authority.

Free men stick their necks out.

To Marx the claim of the theory of ideology is that all doctrine is a derivative of social circumstance.

The idea of a rational bureaucracy, of skill, merit, and consistency, is essential to all modern states.

The method of rule of the tyrant and the oligarch is quite simply to clobber, coerce, or overawe all or most other groups in the interest of their own.

If a government is to do great new things, it will need more support. If a government is to change the world, it will need mass support. This is one of the discoveries of modern government.

Totalitarian rule marks the sharpest contrast imaginable with political rule, and ideological thinking is an explicit and direct challenge to political thinking.

Politics has rough manners, but it is a very useful thing.

The unique character of political activity lies, quite literally, in its publicity.

Politics is too often regarded as a poor relation, inherently dependent and subsidiary; it is rarely praised as something with a life and character of its own.

Since the business of politics is the conciliation of differing interests, justice must not merely be done, but to be seen to be done.

There is no great danger to politics in the desire for certainty at any price.

Certainly if the fundamental problem of society is that demands are infinite and resources are always limited, politics, not economics is the master science.