Political science

If the people believe there’s an imaginary river out there, you don’t tell them there’s no river there. You build an imaginary bridge over the imaginary river.

Nikita Khrushchev to Richard Nixon
quoted by Rick Perlstein in
The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan

Election Day

“Get at it, boys,” said Mr. Smith, “vote and keep on voting till they make you quit.”

 

Stephen Leacock
The Candidacy of Mr. Smith
in Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town

Canadians go to the polls today, from coast to coast to coast.

This is a limited offer: one vote per customer.

Lines I like

To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!

 

W.S. Gilbert

 

Ko-Ko, Pooh-Bah, and Pish-Tush contemplate losing their heads.

From The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan.