Tao Te Ching
Politics and Politicians
“The Buddhist idea of a politician is not so much one of a con man or of a businessman who wins favor with everybody, but someone who simply does what is necessary… having a sense of responsibility to society.” Politicians in our internet, electronic age though have become increasingly more like actors and actresses, psychological manipulators carefully calculating what they do and say to produce more votes. In contrast, the neo-confucian approach Zhu Xi's popularized in the 12th century (and continues to influence today's world) chooses, promotes and demotes politicians based on how much they can put the good of the country above their personal gain.
Quotes (135)
“As surely as bandits hate their chief so do the people of a country resent whatever is over them… (the wise) knowing that a kingdom cannot be mounted get under it; knowing that the people cannot be led he keeps behind them.”
“We who are called royal speak for our people to the powers of the earth and sky as those powers transmit through us. We are go-betweens.”
“A righteous government is of all the most to be wished for […] To effect this I shall work now and ever more.”
“We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”
“Only a leader not focused on personal gain, can wisely govern.”
“The wise can easily be made into leaders but leaders not so easily made wise.”
“A sovereign is to be called a sovereign only when he comports himself as a 'true' sovereign should.”
“It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war who an thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.”
“Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.”
“Those who turn inward and find that they are not true to themselves cannot govern the people well.”
“Knowing how to cultivate oneself is to know how to govern others; knowing how to govern others is to know how to govern the empire, the state, and the family.”
“How are ye blind, ye treaders down of cities,
Ye that cast temples to desolation and lay waste tombs,
The untrodden sanctuaries where lie
The ancient dead; yourselves so soon to die.”
“The despot lives night and day like one condemned to death by the whole of mankind for his wickedness.”
“Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of the world have the spirit and power of philosophy, the human race will never see an end of trouble. Only when political greatness and wisdom meet will cities and nations rest from their evils and see the light of day.”
“In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill... we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.”
“Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law.”
“'Politicians and generals who always want to extend their territories and fill their treasuries are called, 'Robbers of the People and should suffer the highest punishments.”
“When the ruler view his ministers as his hands and feet, they regard him as their heart and soul. When he views them as dirt and weeds, they regard him as an enemy and a thief.”
“The reality of the Tao lies in concern for the self. Concern for the state is irrelevant, and concern for the world is cowshit. From this standpoint, the emperor’s work is the sage’s hobby and is not what develops the self or nourishes life.”
“Those who govern and follow the Tao are like the high branches in a tree; people don’t notice them and wander in freedom like deer in a forest. 3:14”
“Those who govern others with worthiness never win them over. Those who serve others with worthiness never fail to gain their support.”
“In cooking a small fish, too much turning ruins it. In governing a great state, too much reform embitters the people. Thus a ruler who possesses the Way values inaction over reform.”
“Sages… treat the people as if they were their children. Thus, the whole world wants them for their leaders. The people never grow tired of them because sages don’t struggle against them. Everyone struggles against something but no one struggles against those who don’t struggle against anything.”
“those who are capable of leading the world are those who have no ambition to use the world; those who are capable of sustaining fame are those who do nothing excessive to seek it.”
“Politicians and generals who treat people like animals to be driven and sacrificed are the ultimate expression of man’s inhumanity to man.”
“The end justifies the means.(literally 'The result justifies the deed.')”
“Does the tyrant say he will throw me into prison? He cannot imprison my spirit. Does he say that he will put me to death? He can only cut off my head.”
“Human beings betray their worst failings when they marvel to find that a world ruler is neither foolishly indolent, presumptuous, nor cruel.”
“I am unable to wander from place to place as you do but if you could teach me how to meditate while remaining here on my throne in my palace...”
“I weep to see you sitting on this throne, engaging in the wretched business of government.”
“The burden of government must be a punishment inflicted upon me by my karma.”
“When someone uses laws to restrict the world, might to compel it, knowledge to silence it, and majesty to impress it, there are always those who don’t follow. When someone rules by means of the Tao, the world follows without thinking.”
“Bei Zhu was able to contest this case forcefully at court and did not pretend acquiescence. If every matter is handled this way, what cause will there be to worry about misgovernment?”
“How sultan after sultan with all his pump abode his hour or two and quickly went away.”
“My king is the naturally radiant nature of being who defeats the hostile powers of duality—innate, spontaneously arising awareness.”
“Seek to win the hearts of your people and watch over their prosperity. It is to secure their happiness that you were appointed.”
“If you can take your nation as your husband and serve him very carefully, you will earn your reputation.”
“It is necessary to accept hard and inconvenient advice, to punish bad people with merciless law, to protect the numerous subjects with kindness, to strive after a good name that is honored everywhere.”
“The wise are like others in that they are leaders in the world. They are unlike other in that they go beyond the world.”
“Although you may have fortresses, they will not save you if you are hated by the people.”
“A new prince, like David should exalt the humble and depress the great, ‘filling the hungry with good things, and sending the rich empty away.’”
“Anyone who campaigns for public office becomes disqualified for holding any office at all.”
“Those who cultivate this within themselves become sages, while those who practice this in the world become rulers.”
“It is a strange desire to seek a Power that loses our liberty, a power over others that makes us lose power over ourselves. Those in high positions lose their freedom and become slaves to the state, to fame, and to business.”
“He that is to govern a whole nation must read in himself, not this or that particular man; but mankind itself.”
“This [evil practice] is one of the worst habits of great officials, that if they are not recommending their teachers or their friends for high office then they recommend their relations.”
“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”
“In all our associations; in all our agreements let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim - that all power was originally lodged in, and consequently is derived from, the people.”
“In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions.”
“Although Pius had two sons, he preferred the welfare of Rome to the interest of his family, gave his daughter Faustina in marriage to young Marcus, and with a noble disdain or rather ignorance of jealousy, associated him to all the labors of government... Their united reigns are possibly the only period of history in which the happiness of a great people was the sole object of government.”
“Marcus revered the character of his benefactor, loved him as a parent, obeyed his as his sovereign... His life was the noblest commentary of the precepts of Zeno, He was severe to himself indulgent to the imperfections of others, just and beneficent to all mankind... Their united reigns are possibly the only period of history in which the happiness of a great people was the sole object of government.”
“this pestilence… produced two strong and irreconcilable factions… Every law, either human or divine, was trampled under foot; and as long as the party was successful, its deluded followers appeared careless of private distress or public calamity.”
“Justice, humanity, or political wisdom, are qualities they are too little acquainted with in themselves, to appreciate them in others.”
“It is vain to talk of the interest of the community without understanding what is the interest of the individual.”
“In politics, as on a sickbed, men toss from side to side in the hope of lying more comfortably.”
“What everyone most aims at in ordinary contact with his fellows is to prove them inferior to himself; and how much more is this the case in politics.”
“Politics is a deleterious profession, like some poisonous handicrafts. Men in power have no opinions, but may be had cheap for any opinion, for any purpose.”
“In politics, there is no honor... The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.”
“a king overpowered by self-interest is not worthy of being the protector of the kingdom”
“Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity. Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later.”
“That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.”
“There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived.”
“most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders… rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God ” 
“In spite of their fancy words, politicians only barter truth, love, and honor for wool, beet-root sugar, and potato spirit profits.”
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
“The great enemy of civilization is the notion that society cannot prosper, unless the affairs of life are watched over and protected at nearly every turn by the state and the church.”
“A political party has never accomplished anything for humanity. Individuals and geniuses have been the pioneers of every reform and of progress.”
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men...”
“‘And what does it amount to?’ said Satan, with his evil chuckle. ‘Nothing at all. You gain nothing… Who gets a profit out of it? Nobody but a parcel of usurping little monarchs and nobilities who despise you… whom you slave for, fight for, die for… it is the foundation upon which all civilizations have been built.’”
“The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party. The military feelings are too deeply grounded to abdicate their place among our ideals until better substitutes are offered than the glory and shame that comes to nations as well as individuals from the ups and downs of politics”
“Are you a slave? Then you cannot be a friend. Are you a tyrant? Then you cannot have friends.”
“I used to think meanly of the plumber; but how he shines beside the politician!”
“Our present law-makers, as a body, are ignorant, corrupt and unprincipled; the majority of them are, directly or indirectly, under the control of the very monopolies against whose acts we have been seeking relief.”
“As long as politics is the shadow of big business, the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance.”
“I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity.”
“My idea of politics is an open conspiracy to hurry these tiresome, wasteful, evil things—nationality and war—out of existence; to end this empire and that empire, and set up one Empire of Man.”
“Nor is it possible to devote oneself to culture and declare that one is 'not interested' in politics.”
“I lead no party; I follow no leader. I have given the best part of my life to careful study of Islam”
“Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in the hands of politicians.”
“The most horrible thing is not a government that stages public executions, but a government that secretly disposes of its victims.”
“Can we again conceive philosophy as unified knowledge unifying life? Can we outline a kind of philosophy that might make its lovers capable of ruling first themselves and then a state, men worthy to be philosopher-kings?”
“All men are created unequal... Politics is the art of compromise between the classes”
“‘You can’t fool all the people all the time,’ but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.”
“They botch every natural process with theory; their ability to make speeches and multiply ideas is precisely the sign of their incapacity for action.”
“Plato's reduction of political evolution to a sequence of monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, and dictatorship found another illustration in the history of Rome.”
“A great man is different from an eminent one in that he is ready to be the servant of the society.”
“Belief is the systematic taking of unanalyzed words much too seriously. Paul's words, Mohammed's words, Marx's words, Hitler's words---people take them too seriously, and what happens?…sisters of charity selflessly tending the victims of their own church's inquisitors and crusaders.”
“religious, political, personal… symbols, ideas, beliefs… are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man in every relationship.”
“that politics must be subordinated to morals, that government is a makeshift of temporization, law a superficial instrument of order, and police force a foolish invention for morally immature individuals”
“Women administer the home. They set the rules, enforce them, mete out justice for violations. Thus, like Congress, they legislate; like the Executive, they administer; like the courts, they interpret the rules. It is an ideal experience for politics.”
“All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”
“There were on one side people with noble political ideas who tired to apply them, and on the other side those without a particular ideology who tried simply to make things work… I believed in just striving to make things work without a particular message… There is the same idea in Change Tzu: ‘Don’t look any longer for truth, just stop cherishing your opinions!’”
“The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.”
“Look at the dangerous politicians who rush ahead madly along the road to the military-industrial merchants of death while hoisting high the flag of peace. And look at the public which supports this.”
“So warped are the standards by which we measure criminality that players of these games are more apt to be regarded as ‘pillars of society’ than dangerous lunatics who should be exiled to remote islands where they can do no harm to themselves or others.”
“As the Chinese Taoists have seen, there is really no alternative to trusting man's nature. It is the most practical of practical politics.”
“It is when the politician loves neither the public good nor himself, or when his love for himself is limited and is satisfied by the trappings of office, that the public interest is badly served.”
“You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.”
“Wars are fought by teenagers, you realize that. They really ought to be fought by the politicians and old people who start these wars.”
“If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates.”
“Leadership is the wise use of power. Power is the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it.”
“If you're a politician, you might want to learn the Buddhist way of negotiation. Restoring communication and bringing back reconciliation is clear and concrete in Buddhism.”
“The Pentagon and the State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy is a subsidy at the taxpayers' expense, so that, in effect, the citizenry pays to be propagandized in the interest of powerful groups such as military contractors and other sponsors of state terrorism.”
“By refusing to face facts… they accelerate the tendency toward greater tour de force adventures, less predictability, less stability in general. The cycle of manic enthusiasm, then fear, then desperate solutions… all this tends to bring the most irresponsible and reckless politicians to the top.”
“It is important to bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.”
“People ask 'Who is a leader?' A leader is a person that does the work. It's very simple.”
“If we really want to make pure dharma institutions, we must only temporarily depend on society's heavy customs in order to ultimately go beyond into wisdom's customlessness.”
“People are not hungry because there is no food in the world. There is plenty of it; there is a surplus in fact. But between those who want to eat and the bursting warehouses stands a tall obstacle indeed: politics.”
“Government needs to be the size of the problems it’s facing. If small problems, a small government; if no problems, no government; if large problems, a large government is needed. Our problems today - climate change, terrorism, the unprecedented gap between rich and poor; adapting to a radically changing world, etc. - are gigantic and global. Therefore we need a large government. Only a unified, global government will be able to successfully face this scale of global problems. Once faced and solved, we can go back to less and less government.”
“The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people… public discussion is a political duty and should be a fundamental principle of the American government.”
“Getting caught up in a political drama is like getting addicted to a bad soap opera and missing work so you can watch.”
“In America, anyone can become president. That’s the problem.”
“The Buddhist idea of a politician is not so much one of a con man or of a businessman who wins favor with everybody, but someone who simply does what is necessary… having a sense of responsibility to society.”
“The science of politics should be regarded as great good news since it deepens the student's insight and renders his action skillful... To acquire the ability to bring about a good future situation, it is absolutely necessary to study and science of politics and become a skillful politician.”
“Politics is the ability for all reflections of political situations to arise in the mirror of discriminating awareness at once… the ability to look joyfully in the mirror of mind with a relaxed mind free from projections and doubt… the great confidence that is not afraid to be inspired by unprejudiced views”
“The statesman is distinguished from a mere politician by four qualities: a bedrock of principles, a moral compass, a vision, and the ability to create a consensus to achieve that vision.”
“Never before or since have women [the daughters of Genghis Khan] exercised so much power over so many people and ruled so much territory for a long as these women did.”
“In 20 years Genghis Khan conquered and ruled the largest empire in history [ ... ] far more people and territory then the Romans, Persians, Greeks, or Chinese had been able to do in centuries of sustained effort.”
“Politics and church are the same. They keep the people in ignorance.”
“In the ancient world, 'to rule' was synonymous with 'listening to the voices of the gods.'”
“Realizing you’re not king can be the first step toward getting some real power.”
“D.C. is not about solving problems. If we solved problems, there would be nothing else left to do and we would all have to go out and do something honest—like fry hamburgers.”
“In the 1700s, politics was all ab out ideas. But Jefferson came up with all the good ideas. In the 1800s, it was all about character. but no one will ever have as much character as Lincoln and Lee. For much of the 1900s it was about charisma. But we no longer trust charisma because Hitler used it to kill Jews and JFK used it to get laid and send us to Vietnam.”
“All politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative.”
“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.”
“In a functioning democracy, the chief job of a politician is to be a teacher.”
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