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WIST Quotations @[email protected] · 2026-09-02 · 16:51 UTC

I don’t think there was ever a time when money was not important in politics. The single most striking development in American politics is the extent to which money is so predominant that everything else including the public interest is insignificant.

Molly Ivins (1944–2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Interview (2006-10-09), “Who’s It Screw, and Who’s Doing the Screwing?” by Rosalind Alexander, Seattle Weekly

More about this quote: wist.info/ivins-molly/85840/

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WIST Quotations @[email protected] · 2026-06-18 · 04:58 UTC

A quotation from Teddy Roosevelt

Under the spoils system a man is appointed to an ordinary clerical or ministerial position in the municipal, Federal, or State government, not primarily because he is expected to be a good servant, but because he has rendered help to some big boss or to the henchman of some big boss. His stay in office depends not upon how he performs service, but upon how he retains his influence in the party. This necessarily means that his attention to the interests of the public at large, even though real, is secondary to his devotion to his organization, or to the interest of the ward leader who put him in his place.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 5 “Applied Idealism” (1913)

More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/8…

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