Politics - Quotes from Science Fiction

A lot of quotations carefully collected from a very big amount of books and divided by categories.

Have fun reading it, this is really interesting and breathtaking!

This is entirely unlike the disorderly, disorganized elections of the ancients, when - absurd to say - the very results of the election were unknown beforehand. Building a state on entirely unpredictable eventualities, blindly - what can be more senseless?

- Yevgeny Zamiatin, We (1924), translated by Mirra Ginsburg (1972)

It had never occurred to me before that twentieth century politicians had meant, or had thought they meant, what they said; that indeed, they had in their own minds attached a sense of meaning or relevancy to what seem to us meaningless or irrelevant phrases.

- John R. Pierce, ''Invariant'' (1944)

Any collocation of persons, no matter how numerous, how scant, how even their homogeneity, how firmly they profess common doctrine, will presently reveal themselves to consist of smaller groups espousing variant versions of the common creed; and these sub-groups will manifest sub-sub-groups, and so to the final limit of the single individual, and even in this single person conflicting tendencies will express themselves.

- Jack Vance, The Languages of Pao (1958)

To be elected President is the greatest misfortune and disgrace that can befall an Islander.

- William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch (1959)

There is an old song which asserts that ''the best things in life are free.'' Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted . . . and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears.

- Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers (1959)

Politics is just a name for the way we get things done . . . without fighting.We dicker and compromise and everybody thinks he has received a raw deal, but somehow after a tedious amount of talk we come up with some jury-rigged way to do it without getting anybody's head bashed in.

- Robert A. Heinlein, Podkayne of Mars: Her Life and Times (1963)

When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong - faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late.

- Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)

What's the use of arguing about politics these days? Isn't such a thing as politics. There's just a choice between the ways you're going to cave in through force of circumstances.

- John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

Even in a bisexual society the politician is very often something less than an integral man.

- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)

I don't mean love, when I say patriotism. I mean fear. The fear of the other. And its expressions are political, not poetical: hate, rivalry, aggression.

- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)

The purpose of diplomacy is to prolong a crisis.

- George F. Slavin and Stanley Adams, ''The Mark of Gideon,'' episode of Star Trek (1969)

''Part dreamer,'' continued the prosecutor, ''part adventurer.'' ''That's no longer a profession,'' replied Mac. ''It is, if I may say so, simply a trait possessed by any decent scientist.'' ''And decent politician.'' ''A rare combination of words,'' quipped Mac.

- Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky, Prisoners of Power (1969), translated by Helen Saltz Jacobson (1977)

Journalists and politicians have generally been the worst of the race, not the best.

- Hank Davis, ''To Plant a Seed'' (1972)

Fascism was a fairly popular political philosophy which made sacred whatever nation and race the philosopher happened to belong to.

- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Breakfast of Champions, or, Goodbye, Blue Monday! (1973)

Yesterday's politics are not worth the paper wasted on its promises, its threats.

- Roger Zelazny, ''The Engine at Heartspring's Corner'' (1974)

''Ideology,'' growled one of his new friends. ''It's a virus. The world is dying of it.''

- BrianW. Aldiss, ''ThreeWays'' (1978)

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

- Douglas Adams, ''Fit the Twelfth,'' episode of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series, 1980)

''On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.'' ''Odd,'' said Arthur. ''I thought you said it was a democracy.'' ''I did,'' said Ford. [. . .] ''You mean they actually vote for the lizards?'' ''Oh, yes,'' said Ford with a shrug, ''of course.'' ''But,'' said Arthur, going for the big one again, ''why?'' ''Because if they didn't vote for a lizard,'' said Ford, ''the wrong lizard might get in.''

- Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1985)

I think you'd like politics, at least on Barrayar. Maybe because it's so similar to what we call war, elsewhere.

- Lois McMaster Bujold, Shards of Honor (1986)

You got to help me. I don't know what to do. I can't make decisions. I'm a president!

- Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan, and Ronny Graham, Spaceballs (film, 1987)

Species at this stage of their development tend to be territorial, Memory reminded Drill. Their political mentality is based around the concept of borders. The idea of a borderless community of species may be perceived as a threat.

- Walter JonWilliams, ''Dinosaurs'' (1987)

Conflicts are not won on battlefields, General, but in boardrooms.

- Gay Marshall, ''The Heart of the Hydra'' (1995)

Vir: I thought the purpose of filing these reports was to provide accurate intelligence. Londo: Vir, intelligence has nothing to do with politics.

- J. Michael Straczynski, ''Point of No Return,'' episode of Babylon 5 (1996)