Political Lies Quotes

“A mixture of gullibility and cynicism had been an outstanding characteristic of mob mentality before it became an everyday phenomenon of masses. In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. The mixture in itself was remarkable enough, because it spelled the end of the illusion that gullibility was a weakness of unsuspecting primitive souls and cynicism the vice of superior and refined minds. Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

“Politics is the art of promising heaven and delivering purgatory, and claiming hero status for saving your country from hell.”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, The Great Pearl of Wisdom

“What some politicians really mean when they say

this country: me, my party, my ethnic group
international justice is biased: they want to arrest me
terrorists: opposition
illegal immigrants: refugees
elections: remaining in power
peace: eliminating the opposition
international community: the rich countries
the people: sympathisers of my party”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, The Great Pearl of Wisdom

“It was unreal as everything else--as the philanthropic pretense of the whole concern, as their government, as their show of work.”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

“It was unreal as everything else--as the philanthropic pretense of the whole concern, as their talk, as their government, as their show of work. The only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading post where ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages.”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

“No party in the worldd will ever prevent me from preferring Truth to the Party. As soon as falsehood comes in, I am ill at ease. My role is to denounce it. It is to Truth that I am attached. If the Party abandons it, then I abandon the Party.
It is essential to see things as they are and not as we should have liked them to be.
Andre Gide”
― André Gide, Afterthoughts: A Sequel to Back From the U.S.S.R.

“No party in the world will ever prevent me from preferring Truth to the Party. As soon as falsehood comes in, I am ill at ease. My role is to denounce it. It is to Truth that I am attached. If the Party abandons it, then I abandon the Party.
It is essential to see things as they are and not as we should have liked them to be.”
― André Gide, Afterthoughts: A Sequel to Back From the U.S.S.R.

“{Stalin} took care always to say the opposite of what he did, and do the opposite of what he said.”
― Boris Souvarine, Stalin: A Critical Survey of Bolshevism