Jacob K. Javits Quotes & Sayings

I remember my own life as a small boy, son of Jewish immigrants, in a janitor's flat on Orchard and Stanton streets on the Lower East Side of New York City. My father made pants and doubled as janitor of a tenement - before he made janitoring at $30 a month, plus rooms, a career. — Jacob K. Javits

It must be understood that, as adults, we are all terminal. — Jacob K. Javits

Politicians are probably the most underrated people in our society. — Jacob K. Javits

There is nothing to be gained by waiting for a better situation. You see where you are and you do what you can with that. — Jacob K. Javits

Birth and death are the most singular events we experience - and the contemplation of death, as of birth, should be a thing of beauty, not ignobility. — Jacob K. Javits

One of the proven ways of getting workers more involved with their jobs is by dovetailing employee profit-sharing and stock ownership plans with greater responsibility sharing ... Trade unions in this country should ... consider these arrangements much more carefully than they have up to now ... Expanded employee profit participation and stock ownership would provide workers with a greater measure of economic and social independence, thus stimulating increased productivity. — Jacob K. Javits

You must remember, my own philosophy is that you don't belong only to yourself. You have an obligation to the society which protected you when you were brought into the world, which taught you, which supported you and nurtured you. You have an obligation to repay it. — Jacob K. Javits

My thinking is Lincolnian rather than Jeffersonian, Teddy Rooseveltian rather than Franklin D. Rooseveltian. — Jacob K. Javits

There is no office now closed to a Jew, including the presidency. — Jacob K. Javits

I'm a politician. What I say is not holy writ. — Jacob K. Javits

'Business,' properly understood, is so central to every aspect of our civilization that Republicans should proudly announce that they are indeed 'the party of business.' — Jacob K. Javits

When scrutiny is lacking, tyranny, corruption and man's baser qualities have a better chance of entering into the public business of any government. — Jacob K. Javits