Today I am honoring one of our (admittedly few) great American politicians.<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
A hungry man is not a free man.<\/p>\n
A wise man does not try to hurry
\nhistory.<\/p>\n
Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue
\nis to a lady; but a newspaper can always print a retraction.<\/p>\n
All progress has resulted from people
\nwho took unpopular positions.<\/p>\n
An Independent is someone who wants to
\ntake the politics out of politics.<\/p>\n
Change is inevitable. Change for the
\nbetter is a full-time job.<\/p>\n
\nEvery age needs men who will redeem the
\ntime by living with a vision of the things that are to be.<\/p>\n
Flattery is all right so long as you
\ndon’t inhale.<\/p>\n
For my part I believe in the
\nforgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.<\/p>\n
Freedom is not an ideal — it is not even
\na protection — if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to
\nlive without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car and
\nanother television set.<\/p>\n
Freedom rings where opinions clash.<\/p>\n
Golf is a fine relief from the tensions
\nof office, but we are a little tired of holding the bag.<\/p>\n
He [Nixon] is the kind of politician
\nwho would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a
\nspeech for conservation.<\/p>\n
He who slings mud generally loses
\nground.<\/p>\n
I believe that if we really want human
\nbrotherhood to spread and increase until it makes life safe and sane,
\nwe must also be certain that there is no one true faith or path by
\nwhich it may spread.<\/p>\n
I do not believe it is man’s destiny to
\ncompress this once boundless earth into a small neighborhood, the
\nbetter to destroy it. Nor do I believe it is in the nature of man to
\nstrike eternally at the image of himself, and therefore of God. I
\nprofoundly believe that there is on this horizon, as yet only dimly
\nperceived, a new dawn of conscience. In that purer light, people will
\ncome to see themselves in each other, which is to say they will make
\nthemselves known to one another by their similarities rather than by
\ntheir differences. Man’s knowledge of things will begin to be matched
\nby man’s knowledge of self. The significance of a smaller world will
\nbe measured not in terms of military advantage, but in terms of
\nadvantage for the human community. It will be the triumph of the
\nheartbeat over the drumbeat.
\n These are my beliefs and I hold
\nthem deeply, but they would be without any inner meaning for me
\nunless I felt that they were also the deep beliefs of human beings
\neverywhere. And the proof of this, to my mind, is the very existence
\nof the United Nations.<\/p>\n
I don’t want to send them to jail. I
\nwant to send them to school.<\/p>\n
I have been thinking that I would make
\na proposition to my Republican friends… that if they will stop
\ntelling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth
\nabout them.<\/p>\n
I have tried to talk about the issues
\nin this campaign… and this has sometimes been a lonely road,
\nbecause I never meet anybody coming the other way.<\/p>\n
I understand the plight of the
\nNegro–though I am not one myself–and if elected, will do everything
\nwithin my power to fully integrate our fine Colored folk into
\neveryday, national society. That is my personal pledge to you, the
\nAmerican people, as well as the Negro. We have rights to wrong, and
\nwe can not be deterred by a region of our great land who stubbornly
\nclings to outdated notions that the Negro is an inferior being.<\/p>\n
I’m not an old, experienced hand at
\npolitics. But I am now seasoned enough to have learned that the
\nhardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without
\nproving that you are unworthy of winning.<\/p>\n
If we value the pursuit of knowledge,
\nwe must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free
\nmind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain.<\/p>\n
Ignorance is stubborn and prejudice is
\nhard.<\/p>\n
In America any boy may become
\nPresident, and I suppose it’s just one of the risks he takes.<\/p>\n
It is an ancient political vehicle,
\nheld together by soft soap and hunger and with front-seat drivers and
\nback-seat drivers contradicting each other in a bedlam of voices,
\nshouting “go right” and “go left” at the same
\ntime.<\/p>\n
It was always accounted a virtue in
\na man to love his country. With us it is now something more than a
\nvirtue. It is a necessity. When an American says that he loves his
\ncountry, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the
\nprairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great
\nmountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner
\nlight in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath
\nof self-respect.<\/p>\n
It will be helpful in our mutual
\nobjective to allow every man in America to look his neighbor in the
\nface and see a man-not a color.<\/p>\n
It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if
\nyou think you look funny on a horse.<\/p>\n
Law is not a profession at all, but
\nrather a business service station and repair shop.<\/p>\n
Laws are never as effective as habits.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s face it. Let\u2019s talk sense to
\nthe American people. Let\u2019s tell them the truth, that there are no
\ngains without pains, that we are now on the eve of great decisions,
\nnot easy decisions.<\/p>\n
Making peace is harder than making war.<\/p>\n
Man does not live by words alone,
\ndespite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.<\/p>\n
Man is a strange animal. He generally
\ncannot read the handwriting on the wall until his back is up against
\nit.<\/p>\n
My definition of a free society is a
\nsociety where it is safe to be unpopular.<\/p>\n
Nature is indifferent to the survival
\nof the human species, including Americans.<\/p>\n
Nothing so dates a man as to decry the
\nyounger generation.<\/p>\n
\nOn the plains of hesitation lie the
\nblackened bones of countless millions who at the dawn of victory lay
\ndown to rest, and in resting died. <\/p>\n
On this shrunken globe, men can no
\nlonger live as strangers.<\/p>\n
Patriotism is not short, frenzied
\noutbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a
\nlifetime.<\/p>\n
Peace is the one condition of survival
\nin this nuclear age.<\/p>\n
Public confidence in the integrity of
\nthe Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we
\nlose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight
\nand spend for.<\/p>\n
Respect for intellectual excellence,
\nthe restoration of vigor and discipline to our ideas of study,
\ncurricula which aim at strengthening intellectual fiber and
\nstretching the power of young minds, personal commitment and
\nresponsibility \u2014 these are the preconditions of educational
\nrecovery in America today; and, I believe, they have always been the
\npreconditions of happiness and sanity for the human race.<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan is much like Texas \u2014
\nexcept it’s more friendly to the United States<\/p>\n
Some of us worship in churches, some in
\nsynagogues, some on golf courses.<\/p>\n
Some people approach every problem with
\nan open mouth.<\/p>\n
That which seems the height of
\nabsurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in
\nanother.<\/p>\n
[During his 1956 presidential campaign,
\na woman called out to him, “You have the vote of every thinking
\nperson!” Stevenson called back:] “That’s not enough, madam,
\nwe need a majority!”<\/p>\n
The art of government has grown from
\nits seeds in the tiny city-states of Greece to become the political
\nmode of half the world. So let us dream of a world in which all
\nstates, great and small, work together for the peaceful flowering of
\nthe republic of man.<\/p>\n
The definition of a free society is a
\nsociety where it is safe to be unpopular.<\/p>\n
The early years of the United Nations
\nhave been difficult ones, but what did we expect? That peace would
\ndrift down from the skies like soft snow? That there would be no
\nordeal, no anguish, no testing, in this greatest of all human
\nundertakings?
\n Any great institution or idea
\nmust suffer its pains of birth and growth. We will not lose faith in
\nthe United Nations. We see it as a living thing and we will work and
\npray for its full growth and development. We want it to become what
\nit was intended to be \u2014 a world society of nations under law, not
\nmerely law backed by force, but law backed by justice and popular
\nconsent.<\/p>\n
The elephant has a thick skin, a head
\nfull of ivory, and as everyone who has seen a circus parade knows,
\nproceeds best by grasping the tail of its predecessor. [Comment on
\nthe Republican symbol.]<\/p>\n
The first principle of a free society
\nis an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.<\/p>\n
The hardest thing about any political
\ncampaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of
\nwinning.<\/p>\n
The human race has improved everything,
\nbut the human race.<\/p>\n
The idea that you can merchandise
\ncandidates for high office like breakfast cereal \u2014 that you can
\ngather votes like box tops \u2014 is, I think, the ultimate indignity to
\nthe democratic process.<\/p>\n
The journey of a thousand leagues
\nbegins with a single step. So we must never neglect any work of peace
\nwithin our reach, however small.<\/p>\n
The New Dealers have all left
\nWashington to make way for the car dealers.<\/p>\n
\nThe relationship of the toastmaster to
\nspeaker should be the same as that of the fan to the fan dancer. It
\nshould call attention to the subject without making any particular
\neffort to cover it.<\/p>\n
The Republican party makes even its
\nyoung men seem old; the Democratic Party makes even its old men seem
\nyoung.<\/p>\n
The Republicans have a “me too”
\ncandidate running on a “yes but” platform, advised by a
\n“has been” staff.<\/p>\n
The Republicans stroke platitudes until
\nthey purr like epigrams.<\/p>\n
The sound of tireless voices is the
\nprice we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions. But
\nthere is also, it seems to me, a moment at which democracy must prove
\nits capacity to act. Every man has a right to be heard; but no man
\nhas the right to strangle democracy with a single set of vocal
\nchords.<\/p>\n
The time to stop a revolution is at the
\nbeginning, not the end.<\/p>\n
The whole notion of loyalty
\ninquisitions is a national characteristic of the police state, not of
\ndemocracy. The history of Soviet Russia is a modern example of this
\nancient practice. I must, in good conscience, protest against any
\nunnecessary suppression of our rights as free men. We must not burn
\ndown the house to kill the rats.<\/p>\n
There are worse things than losing an
\nelection; the worst thing is to lose one’s convictions and not tell
\nthe people the truth.<\/p>\n
There was a time when a fool and his
\nmoney were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody.<\/p>\n
This the first time I ever heard it
\nsaid that the crime is not the burglary, but the discovery of the
\nburglar.<\/p>\n
Those who corrupt the public mind are
\njust as evil as those who steal from the public purse.<\/p>\n
To act coolly, intelligently and
\nprudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man \u2014 and also
\na nation.<\/p>\n
Understanding human needs is half the
\njob of meeting them.<\/p>\n
Unreason and anti-intellectualism
\nabominate thought. But shouting is not a substitute for thinking and
\nreason is not the subversion but the salvation of freedom.<\/p>\n
We can chart our future clearly and
\nwisely only when we know the path which has led to the present.<\/p>\n
We have confused the free with the free
\nand easy.<\/p>\n
We hear the Secretary of State boasting
\nof his brinkmanship \u2014 the art of bringing us to the edge of the
\nabyss.<\/p>\n
We live in an era of revolution \u2014 the
\nrevolution of rising expectations.<\/p>\n
We must recover the element of quality
\nin our traditional pursuit of equality. We must not, in opening our
\nschools to everyone, confuse the idea that all should have equal
\nchance with the notion that all have equal endowments.<\/p>\n
We should be careful and discriminating
\nin all the advice we give. We should be especially careful in giving
\nadvice that we would not think of following ourselves. Most of all,
\nwe ought to avoid giving counsel which we don’t follow when it
\ndamages those who take us at our word.<\/p>\n
We talk a great deal about patriotism.
\nWhat do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture
\nto suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility
\nwhich will enable America to remain master of her power \u2014 to walk
\nwith it in serenity and wisdom, with self-respect and the respect of
\nall mankind; a patriotism that puts country ahead of self; a
\npatriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the
\ntranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. The dedication of a
\nlifetime \u2014 these are words that are easy to utter, but this is a
\nmighty assignment. For it is often easier to fight for principles
\nthan to live up to them.<\/p>\n
We travel together, passengers on a
\nlittle spaceship, dependent on it’s vulnerable reserves of air and
\nsoil, all committed, for our safety, to it’s security and peace.
\nPreserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and the love
\nwe give our fragile craft.<\/p>\n
What a man knows at fifty that he did
\nnot know at twenty is for the most part incommunicable.<\/p>\n
With the supermarket as our temple and
\nthe singing commercial as our litany, are we likely to fire the world
\nwith an irresistible vision of America\u2019s exalted purpose and
\ninspiring way of life?<\/p>\n
[When asked on a television show if he
\nhad any advice to give to young politicians:] “Yes, never run
\nagainst a war hero.”<\/p>\n
You are in the courtroom of world
\nopinion. You have denied they exist, and I want to know if I
\nunderstood you correctly. I am prepared to wait for my answer until
\nhell freezes over. And I am also prepared to present the evidence in
\nthis room!<\/p>\n
You can tell the size of a man by the
\nsize of the thing that makes him mad.<\/p>\n
You know, you really can’t beat a
\nhousehold commodity – the ketchup bottle on the kitchen table.<\/p>\n
You will find that the truth is often
\nunpopular and the contest between agreeable fancy and disagreeable
\nfact is unequal. For, in the vernacular, we Americans are suckers for
\ngood news.<\/p>\n
Your days are short here; this is the
\nlast of your springs. And now in the serenity and quiet of this
\nlovely place, touch the depths of truth, feel the hem of Heaven. You
\nwill go away with old, good friends. And don’t forget when you leave
\nwhy you came.<\/p>\n
\n
– Adlai E. Stevenson (1900-1965)<\/p>\n
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