Max Weber Quotes on Politics
Max Weber, a founder of modern social science, gave one of the twentieth century's most enduring accounts of political vocation, and the quotes gathered here present it. Weber's famous image defines the work itself: politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards, a patient labour requiring passion and judgment at the same time. He named the three qualities decisive for the politician as passion, a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of proportion. Weber was also clear-eyed about the moral peril of the calling, holding, in a remark marked here as attributed, that whoever takes up politics, and so power and force as means, contracts with diabolical powers. Drawn from his lecture Politics as a Vocation, these passages present politics as a demanding vocation that joins passion to responsibility while remaining honest about its dangers.
Quotes
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“Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards.”
Politics as a Vocation -
Attributed to Max Weber:
“He who lets himself in for politics, that is, for power and force as means, contracts with diabolical powers.”
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Attributed to Max Weber:
“The Puritan wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so.”
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Attributed to Max Weber:
“An iron cage of bureaucratic rationality.”
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Attributed to Max Weber:
“Three pre-eminent qualities are decisive for the politician: passion, a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of proportion.”
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“"Politics means a strong slow drilling of hard boards, with passion and judgment at the same time." ([ [1] ]: "Die Politik bedeutet ein starkes langsames Bohren von harten Brettern mit Leidenschaft und Augenmaß zugleich.")”
"Politics as a Vocation" (1919)