...Politics is an activity in which you recognize the simultaneous existence of different groups, interests and opinions. You try to find some way to balance or reconcile or compromise those interests, or at least a majority of them. You follow a set of rules, enshrined in a constitution or in custom, to help you reach these compromises in a way everybody considers legitimate.

The downside of politics is that people never really get everything they want. It’s messy, limited and no issue is ever really settled. Politics is a muddled activity in which people have to recognize restraints and settle for less than they want. Disappointment is normal.

But that’s sort of the beauty of politics, too. It involves an endless conversation in which we learn about other people and see things from their vantage point and try to balance their needs against our own. Plus, it’s better than the alternative: rule by some authoritarian tyrant who tries to govern by clobbering everyone in his way....

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

Politics may be defined as: the method adopted in governments for obtaining motivation toward a monopoly. In all political actions, a monopoly of control and method is sought.

What do I mean by politics? I mean people advancing their careers or agendas by means other than merit and contribution. There may be other types of politics, but politics of this form seem to be the ones that really bother people.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.

I believe the university definition of politics is accurate when it describes it as "a way of sharing power and scarce resources." Harold Lasswell also famously defined politics as the art of "who gets what, when, and how." This highlights that, whether or not we are directly involved in formal or public political spheres, issues like power, resource distribution, equity, and justice are relevant to everyone. They affect us all in some way.

Politics is the business of getting power and privilege without possessing merit. A politician is anyone who asks individuals to surrender part of their liberty— their power and privilege— to State, Masses, Mankind, Planet Earth, or whatever. This state, those masses, that mankind, and the planet will then be run by ... politicians.

Politics is the participation of the citizen in his government. The kind of government he has depends entirely on the quality of that participation. Therefore, every single one of us must learn, as early as possible, to understand and accept our duties as a citizen.

It is not the form of things that must be attended to but their spirit. The real is what matters, not the apparent. In politics, reality is that which is unseen. Politics is the art of combining a nation’s diverse or opposing factors to the benefit of its domestic well-being, and of saving the country from the open enmity or covetous friendship of other nations.

Politics is a consequence of how a person understands their experience.

Political means great movers. To me, you can define political in a number of ways. But I would hope it was in the sense that it does help move and change consciousness in terms of how different peoples and cultures are seen, evolve.

I appreciated that politics requires strategic patience, hard work, a clear vision of a better future, an unshakeable belief that future to life and the ideal opportunity to make it all come together.

Politics is part philosophy, part performance and part practicality. The last is more mundane but it is the one which finally makes the difference.