Mencken's [very widely attributed, as yet unsourced] pat response to all angry letters:

A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.

A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so m…

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.