Michael Ignatieff People Quotations

Politics is a tough game. But would I change places with a trauma nurse in an emergency ward on a busy Saturday night? No way. There are lots of jobs in the world that are tougher than politics. And politicians and people who've done it need to remember that.

We're going out to rescue people who are being slaughtered or massacred, but we're going to do it at zero personal cost to ourselves.

I may have come into politics with an unacknowledged condescension toward the game and the people who played it, but I left with more respect for politicians than when I went in. The worst of them - the careerists and predators - you find in all professions. The best of them were a credit to democracy.

If the only people who can succeed in politics are people who go in at 25, that'd be too bad. That'd be a shame.

For someone like me who, as a kid, walked to school muttering little political speeches to myself, it was irresistible to finally get a chance at political life for real. When the people of Etobicoke-Lakeshore elected me their MP, it changed me forever.

It's good for people to believe in causes larger than themselves.

How do you keep war accountable to the American people when war becomes invisible and virtual?

I teach students that what people say about failure in politics is mostly wrong. People always told me, 'They'll praise you on your way up and kick you on your way down.' That wasn't my experience. I can't walk down the street in Toronto without someone coming up and saying hello.

You can't spend your whole life teaching people about public service without finally thinking that you should put your money where your mouth is.