Life is not a static thing. The only people who do not change their minds are incompetents in asylums, and those in cemeteries.
Everett DirksenRead
During a political campaign everyone is concerned with what a candidate will do on this or that question if he is elected except the candidate; he's too busy wondering what he'll do if he isn't elected.
Interpretation
Candidates focus more on their own election fears than on the promises they make.
This quote highlights the irony of political campaigns, where candidates often become preoccupied with the anxieties of losing rather than addressing the issues they campaign on. It suggests that the pressure of electoral success can overshadow genuine political discourse, as candidates are torn between their responsibilities and their personal stakes in the election outcome.
In practice
In a discussion about the integrity of political campaigns.
Life is not a static thing. The only people who do not change their minds are incompetents in asylums, and those in cemeteries.
When a member of the House moves over to the Senate, he raises the IQ of both bodies.
I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.
There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
We support the security of both Israel and her neighbors.
I found that it was all right to have Martians saying things Democrats and Republicans could never say.
We see more and more of our Presidents and know less and less about what they do.
Anti-U.S. sentiment has been born out of many grievances - support and weapons for such dictators as Mubarak, unquestionable support for Israel in its occupation of Palestine, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen that kill more civilians than intended targets.
Even the most cynical can hardly be surprised by the antics of Nixon and his accomplices as they are gradually revealed. It matters little, at this point, where the exact truth lies in the maze of perjury, evasion, and of contempt for the normal - hardly inspiring - standards of political conduct.
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