Theodore H. White Quotes & Sayings

In the politics of consent, no victory is ever permanent unless the victor makes it firm on a base of persuasion. — Theodore H. White

I have decided that I will test my ability ... in the fires of the primaries and not just in the smoke-filled rooms of Miami Beach. — Theodore H. White

Every American election summons the individual voter to weigh the past against the future. — Theodore H. White

In the hard life of politics it is well known that no platform nor any program advanced by either major American party has any purpose beyond expressing emotion. Platforms are a ritual with a history of their own and, after being written, they are useful chiefly to scholars who dissect them as archeological political remains. The writing of a platform does indeed flatter many people, gives many pressure groups a chance to blow off steam in public, permits the leaders of such pressure groups to report back to their memberships of their valiant efforts to persuade. But in actual fact, all platforms are meaningless: the program of either party is what lies in the vision and conscience of the candidate the party chooses to lead it. Nevertheless, — Theodore H. White

A genuine primary is a fight within the family of the party - and, like any family fight, is apt to be more bitter and leave more enduring wounds than battle with the November enemy. — Theodore H. White

Perhaps the book's greatest weakness is its romantic depiction of President Kennedy as a kind of knight in shining armor. — Theodore H. White

In politics, the things that do not happen are frequently as significant as those that do. — Theodore H. White

Liberalism: for every complicated problem there exists both an intellectual and a moral solution and they coincide. — Theodore H. White

But if America falters in greatness and purpose, than Americans are nothing but the offscourings and hungry of other lands. — Theodore H. White

The forces that run in American politics in our age are many and varied; they run in strange ways in our times of general education--they run in the meeting of white and black; in the nagging, daily concern for war and peace; in automation and unemployment. Yet one man must make them all clear enough for American people to vote and express their desire.

He is the President. — Theodore H. White

All men who run for presidency of the United States are amateurs; there is no way of becoming a professional at it, and all of them, win or lose, are forever altered in spirit of character by the ordeal. — Theodore H. White

The flood of money that gushes into politics today is a pollution of democracy. — Theodore H. White

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see everyday, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform. — Theodore H. White

The first and most essential quality of a presidential candidate, as Averell Harriman once pointed out, is that he should lust for the job - he should want it more than all things, with a passion surpassing all emotion and probably even all principle. — Theodore H. White

He had always acted as if men were masters of forces, as if all things were possible for men determined in purpose and clear in thought - even the Presidency. This perhaps is what he had best learned in 1960 - even though he called his own victory a "miracle." This was what he would have to cherish alone in the White House, on which an impatient world waited for miracles. — Theodore H. White

The 'smoke-filled room' as political reality is now as dead as Prohibition. — Theodore H. White

Reading through the reviews, I feel as though I am witnessing a much more erudite and informed preview of the Fox News/MSNBC shouting matches of today. — Theodore H. White

Professionals in a campaign are servants; they can tell him only how to do something once he tells them what it is he wants to do. — Theodore H. White

The development of an image is a mysterious thing: once a public figure has been cast in a public role, it is almost impossible for him to change the character. It is as if someone has assembled personality traits into a convenient pattern, no writer ever re-examines it: it is easier to use the accepted pattern. — Theodore H. White

Politics is a process which should slowly bring to public all the private worries and hopes of the individual. — Theodore H. White

The best politics for any president is to be a good president. — Theodore H. White

The Americans of the age were not an irreligious people; and the fact that they were Christian was very important, for the marks of Christianity lay all across the Constitution. — Theodore H. White