A statesman or stateswoman or statesperson is usually a politician or other notable figure of state who has had a long and respected career in politics at the national and international level. A politician (from Greek " Polis " is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making through the influence of Politics or a person A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term.

When a politician retires, he or she is often referred to as an elder statesman/ stateswoman by his or her supporters.

Statespersonship also conveys a quality of leadership that organically bring people together and of eldership, a spirit of caring for others and for the whole.

Anyone elected to office is a politician but only a few consistently manage to work as disinterested promoters of the public good with integrity. There is a huge difference between the two.

The words statesman, stateswoman, and statesperson are often applied loosely to any head of state, any senior political figure, or anyone who in a given moments exhibits a certain quality of "statespersonship. "

Quotations

• Aristotle -- "What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Moral character or character is an evaluation of a particular individual's moral qualities Virtue ( Latin virtus; Greek) is moral Excellence. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting individual In Philosophy, action has developed into a sub-field called Philosophy of action. "
• Harry S. Truman -- "A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years. "
• Henry Kissinger -- "The statesman's duty is to bridge the gap between experience and vision. Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923) is a German -born American bureaucrat diplomat and 1973 "
• London's Evening News, July 21, 1960 -- "There will be need for a new word. The Evening News was an evening newspaper published in London from 1881 to 1980 reappearing briefly in 1987 Events 356 BC - Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Presumably, we shall have to call her a Stateswoman. This is the suffragette's dream come true. " (On Sirimavo Bandaranaike's election to Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, the first such woman leader in the world, though other women heads of state and government and other women political leaders had been referred to as "statesmen". Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike ( April 17, 1916 - October 10, 2000) was a politician from Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka is the functional head of the Cabinet of Sri Lanka. )
• Milton Friedman -- "One man's opportunism is another man's statesmanship. Milton Friedman (July 31 1912 November 16 2006 was an American Nobel Laureate Economist and Public intellectual. Opportunism is a term used in Politics and Political science. "
• Otto von Bismarck -- “I consider even a victorious war as an evil, from which statesmanship must endeavor to spare nations. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen Duke of Lauenburg Prince of Bismarck ( April 1, 1815 July 30, 1898) ”