Adlai Stevenson II Quotes

I have tried to talk about the issues in this campaign... But, strangely enough, my friends, this road has been a lonely road because I never meet anybody coming the other way.

I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.

The human race has improved everything but the human race.

Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.

The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal — that you can gather votes like box tops — is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.

"The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum."
(Adlai E. Stevenson, 1900-1965, American Lawyer, Politician)

Understanding human needs is half the job of meeting them.

I venture to guess that patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.

The problem of cat versus bird is as old as time. If we attempt to resolve it by legislation who knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age old problems of dog versus cat, bird versus bird, or even bird versus worm. In my opinion, the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency. For these reasons, and not because I love birds the less or cats the more, I veto and withhold my approval from Senate Bill No. 93.

Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady; but a newspaper can always print a retraction.

Some of us worship in churches, some in synagogues, some on golf courses … yet we are all children of the same Judaic-Christian civilization, with much the same religious background basically.

Nixon is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump for a speech on conservation.

Happily for us, students have not tried to overthrow the Government of the United States, but they certainly are making their views felt in public affairs. I think especially of the participation of American students in the great struggle to advance civil and human rights in America. Indeed, even a jail sentence is no longer a dishonor but a proud achievement.

It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.

Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car and another television set.