AN EXERCISE IN SHEER QUOTIDIAN NEGATIVITY

Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.

-- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906, 1911



Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

-- Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, 1907



All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.

-- John Arbuthnot, quoted in Richard Garnett’s Life of Emerson, 1887



The standard of intellect in politics is so low that men of moderate mental capacity have to stoop in order to reach it.

-- attributed to Hilaire Belloc after a term in the House of Commons



One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one.

-- Henry Miller, Writers at Work, 1963



Politicians ... are the semi-failures in business and the professions, men of mediocre mentality, dubious morality and magnificent commonplaceness.

-- Walter B. Pitkin, The Twilight of the American Mind, 1928



A politician imitates the Devil, as the Devil imitates a cannon: wheresoever he comes to do mischief, he comes with his backside towards you.

-- John Webster, The White Devil, c. 1608



Spare me the sight of this thankless breed, these politicians who cringe for favors from a screaming mob and do not care what harm they do their friends, providing they can please a crowd!

-- Euripedes, Hecuba, c. 425 BC



There is no act of treachery or meanness of which a political party is not capable; for in politics there is no honor.

-- Benjamin Disreali, Vivian Grey, 1824



A special thanks to the best source of bile and negativity I’ve ever seen, a book entitled Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: an encyclopedic compendium of classical and contemporary abhorrence, abomination, abuse, acrimony, anger, animosity, annoyance, antipathy, aversion, bitchery, bitterness, calumny, cynicism, derogation, detestation, disaffection, disgust, disparagement, distemper, execration, hostility, insolence, insult, invective, loathing, malevolence, malice, malignity, misanthropy, odium, perversity, pique, rancor, resentment, revulsion, sarcasm, spite, spleen, umbrage, venom, vilification, vituperation, and downright nastiness. (Simon and Schuster, 1984. Compiled and edited by Nat Shapiro)

All thinking beings should have a copy of this book ... I wonder if it’s still in print ...