What's distinctively shocking about Machiavelli is that he didn't care. He believed not only that politicians must do evil in the name… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share Image
Trouble is, we call politics a game, but it isn't one. There is no referee, and the teams make up the rules… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share Image
Commerce has changed the ethics of citizenship and the incentives for national service. America now buys private contractors - we used to… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share Image
The Only cure for nihilism is for liberal democratic societies - their electorates, their judiciary, and their political leadership- to insist that force is… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
What really matters is getting new people in. The constitutional changes matter, but the thing that the party mustn't do is turn in on… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
The medium's gaze is brief, intense, and promiscuous. The shelf life of the moral causes it makes its own is brutally short. — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
Those with a gift for action, for their part, often express contempt for those whose gifts are more reflective. Men of action like to… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
There are lots of nations in the world or national peoples who don't yet have states. They're inside someone else's state and they want… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
Affirming belief that America is an exceptional nation has become a test of patriotism in American politics. — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
Both Iraq and Syria are a fissile mixture of ethnicities and religions thrown together after Versailles by departing French and British imperialists and only… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
The legitimacy of coercive acts in a democracy arises from the process by which they are justified and by the degree to which we… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
Some of our finest leaders were not intellectuals at all, and I admire them enormously because they weren't. Harry Truman wasn't. — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
If you get the access to see history happen, do you understand the history when it does happen? And the answer to that question… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
I have been a journalist, off and on, since I was 17. I was a copy boy for the 'New York Times,' when it… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
In academic life, false ideas are merely false, and useless ones can be fun to play with. — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
Liberal democracy has endured because its institutions are designed for handling morally hazardous forms of coercive power. It puts the question of how far… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
An intellectual may be interested in ideas and policies for their own sake, but a politician's interest is exclusively in the question of whether… — Michael Ignatieff Copy Share
