This sounds like something Bill Clinton would say, but who said it?

[billbuckhead]

“Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.”

[CrazyForKucinich]

1. Uhh. Ralph Nader said it better...

"If you're not turned onto politics, politics will turn on you."

[Vickers]

2. Pericles.

:)

[whistle]

3. The greek philosopher and teacher Pericles...<oops, edit>

Pericles or Perikles (ca. 495 BC-429 BC, Greek: Περικλῆς, meaning "surrounded by glory") was a prominent and influential statesman, orator and general of Athens in the city's Golden Age (specifically, between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars). He was descended, through his mother, from the Alcmaeonid family. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericles


Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. -- Pericles (430 B.C.)

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. -- Plato

Your very silence shows you agree. -- Euripides

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy. -- Ernest Benn
<more>

http://www.legendinc.com/Pages/ArchivesCentral/QuoteArchives/Politics.html

[billbuckhead]

4. Amazing that something said almost 2500 years could be so valid today

I've known so many people who thought that one could stay out of politics and not be effected. Some even think that staying out of politics is some sort of moral highground. This Pericles quote sure is a strong argument against that very popular idea.

[mcscajun]

5. I'd love to see a citation on that quote.

I've only been able to see it mentioned without citation, and of course, on Wikipedia (not exactly the hallmark of scholarship).

Something about it (the style and the use of contractions, and yes, I know that's from the translation) just strikes me as anachronistic and stylistically different from other Pericles quotes.

Great line, in any case, and something to take to heart. Those people who say "I'm not interested in politics" Really Are Clueless.