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Home  »  Respectfully Quoted  »  Henry Fountain Ashurst (1874–1962)

Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.

 
NUMBER: 1391
AUTHOR: Henry Fountain Ashurst (1874–1962)
QUOTATION: [Recipe for political success:] If a politician during a campaign finds it necessary to resort to flattery, he should spread it on, not in thin layers, but with a trowel, or better yet, a shovel. Politicians should not forget that voters never grow weary of illusory promises. Politicians should ever remember that the electorate suspects and distrusts men of superb intellect, calmness, and serenity. And, finally, the politician must always tell people what they want to hear.
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to Senator HENRY FOUNTAIN ASHURST.—John Rustgard, The Problem of Poverty, 2d ed., pp. 211–12 (1936).
SUBJECTS: Politicians