quotations about the U.S. Congress
I never know what South Carolina thinks of a measure. I never consult her. I act to the best of my judgment, and according to my conscience. If she approves, well and good. If she does not, or wishes any one to take my place, I am ready to vacate.
JOHN C. CALHOUN
"Calhoun as a Lawyer and Statesman", The Green Bag, June 1899
Papers say: "Congress is deadlocked and can't act." I think that is the greatest blessing that could befall this country.
WILL ROGERS
Weekly Article #59, January 27, 1924
As for Congress, one imaginative polling firm found that brussels sprouts, head lice, cockroaches, colonoscopies, and gonorrhea were more popular than our elected representatives.
CHARLIE LEDUFF
Sh*tshow!
A new study published by The British Medical Journal found that inactivity can kill you. I mean, these are the kind of findings that just scare the hell out of Congress.
JAY LENO
The Tonight Show, Jul. 23, 2012
The American, if he has a spark of national feeling, will be humiliated by the very prospect of a foreigner's visit to Congress -- these, for the most part, illiterate hacks whose fancy vests are spotted with gravy, and whose speeches, hypocritical, unctuous and slovenly, are spotted also with the gravy of political patronage, these persons are a reflection on the democratic process rather than of it; they expose it in its underwear.
MARY MCCARTHY
"American the Beautiful,", Commentary, Sep. 1947
In Congress the majority governs, but the minority rules.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Give us at least a plausible apology why congress should keep their proceedings in secret. They have the power of keeping them in secret as long as they please; for the provision for a periodical publication is too inexplicit and ambiguous to avail any thing. The expression, from time to time, as I have more than once observed, admits of any extension. They may carry on the most wicked and pernicious of schemes under the dark veil of secrecy. The liberties of a people never were nor ever will be secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.
PATRICK HENRY
speech on the expediency of adopting the Federal Constitution, June 7, 1788
Members of Congress are like the voters in one respect -- they want to go with the winners.
RALPH NADER
Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!
With Congress, every time they make a joke it's a law. And every time they make a law it's a joke.
WILL ROGERS
Will Rogers: Ambassador of Good Will, Prince of Wit and Wisdom
No matter how short the session, Congress always has the necessary time to pass the unnecessary legislation.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Kid Congress and the Senate, don't scold 'em. They are just children that's never grown up. They don't like to be corrected in company. Don't send messages to 'em, send candy.
WILL ROGERS
advice sent to President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, December 2, 1932
Not one British citizen in a thousand watches what is done in Parliament; not one in a thousand Americans follows the discourses of Congress. Interest has gone. Every election in the past thirty years has been fought on gross misunderstandings.
H.G. WELLS
The Holy Terror
Our "bipartisan" Congressional orientation is cohosted by a corporate lobbyist group.... Lobbyists are here. Goldman Sachs is here. Where's labor? Activists? Frontline community leaders?
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ
Twitter post, December 6, 2018
Talk is cheap -- except when Congress does it.
CULLEN HIGHTOWER
attributed, The Greatest Quotations of All Time
Sounds become more like other sounds that neighbor them. That is why one congressman oinks, another moos, and another bleats.
BAUVARD
Evergreens Are Prudish
To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature Congressman.
MARK TWAIN
New York Daily Tribune, Mar. 10, 1873
Congress is like first grade ... only not as well behaved.
SEAN PATRICK MALONEY
Times Herald-Record, March 2, 2013
Congress would give the people what they wanted if the people knew what they wanted, and if Congress could give it to them.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
He still had a fragment of his boyhood belief that congressmen were persons of intelligence and importance.
SINCLAIR LEWIS
Arrowsmith
Congress has always had a soft spot for “experts” who tell members what they want to hear, whether it’s supply-side economists declaring that tax cuts increase revenue or climate-change skeptics insisting that global warming is a myth.
PAUL KRUGMAN
"Fuels on the Hill,", New York Times, Jun. 27, 2008