Adlai Quotes & Sayings

It will be helpful in our mutual objective to allow every man in America to look his neighbor in the face and see a man-not a color. — Adlai E. Stevenson

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

Understanding human needs is half the job of meeting them. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

Not to destroy but to construct,
I hold the unconquerable belief
that science and peace will triumph over ignorance and war
that nations will come together
not to destroy but to construct
and that the future belongs to those
who accomplish most for humanity. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Laws are never as effective as habits. — Adlai E. Stevenson

He who slings mud generally loses ground. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Technically, 'Kukla, Fran and Ollie' was a kids' show, but adults watched almost religiously - and we're talking adult adults, celebrated adults - including James Thurber, Orson Welles, John Steinbeck, Adlai E. Stevenson and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. — Tom Shales

Protocol, alcohol, and Geritol — Adlai E. Stevenson

Though Americans talk a good deal about the virtue of being serious, they generally prefer people who are solemn over people who are serious. In politics, the rare candidate who is serious, like Adlai Stevenson, is easily overwhelmed by one who is solemn, like General Eisenhower. This is probably because it is hard for most people to recognize seriousness, which is rare, especially in politics, but comfortable to endorse solemnity, which is as commonplace as jogging. — Russell Baker

A beauty is a woman you notice; a charmer is one who notices you. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Why is it that when political ammunition runs low, inevitably the rusty artillery of abuse is always wheeled into action? — Adlai Stevenson I

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

To me, there is something superbly symbolic in the fact that an astronaut, sent up as assistant to a series of computers, found that he worked more accurately and more intelligently than they. Inside the capsule, man is still in charge. — Adlai Stevenson

In quiet places, reason abounds. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

A wise man does not try to hurry history. Many wars have been avoided by patience, and many have been precipitated by reckless haste. — Adlai Stevenson I

Flattery is alright if you don't inhale. — Adlai Stevenson Samper

To act coolly, intelligently and prudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man - and also a nation. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Power corrupts, but lack of power corrupts absolutely. — Adlai Stevenson I

Nixon is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood and then mount the stump to make a speech for conservation. — Adlai Ewing Stevenson

This is the dilemma of science-think and yet again a situation in which scientists simply shouldn't be such scientists. Bring in the professionals, and trust them when they tell you to invest in communication. It may be frustrating and seem like a frivolous waste of resources, but what's the alternative strategy - to assume that people are rational, thinking beings? There's a famous quote by Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, who heard a woman shout to him that all the thinking people of America were with him. He replied, "That's not going to be enough, Madam; I need a majority of the public. — Randy Olson

The Republicans have a me too candidate running on a yes but platform, advised by a has been staff. — Adlai Stevenson

The New Dealers have all left Washington to make way for the car dealers. — Adlai Stevenson

On this shrunken globe, men can no longer live as strangers. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Self-Criticism is the secret weapon of democracy, and candor and confession are good for the political soul. — Adlai Stevenson I

It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

I don't want to send them to jail. I want to send them to school. — Adlai E. Stevenson

The relationship of the toastmaster to speaker should be the same as that of the fan to the fan dancer. It should call attention to the subject without making any particular effort to cover it. — Adlai E. Stevenson

What a man knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty is for the most part incommunicable. — Adlai E. Stevenson

On the plains of hesitation lie the blackened bones of countless millions who at the dawn of victory lay down to rest, and in resting died. — Adlai E. Stevenson

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) — Adlai E. Stevenson II

A lie is an abomination unto the Lord, and a very present help in trouble. — Adlai Stevenson I

As a youngster, I had friends who became lawyers and doctors, and I was as idealistic as anybody. When I was in the Army, I read a book by Adlai Stevenson. He said law was as noble as saving a person's life. So at one point, I felt that way, too. But after a while, I said, 'Let me just finish the degree. I'm getting the G.I. Bill.' — William Sanderson

Every age needs men who will redeem the time by living with a vision of the things that are to be. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Ignorance is stubborn and prejudice is hard. — Adlai E. Stevenson

In America, anybody can be president.
That's one of the risks you take. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody. — Adlai E. Stevenson

There is no evil in the atom; only in men's souls. — Adlai Stevenson

Newspaper editors are men who separate the wheat from the chaff, and then print the chaff. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

When I mentioned about Adlai Stevenson, if he was vice president there would never have been an assassination of our beloved President Kennedy — Jack Ruby

We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming. — Adlai Stevenson I

Change is inevitable. Change for the better is a full time job. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

Freedom rings where opinions clash. — Adlai E. Stevenson

I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them — Adlai E. Stevenson II

Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Nothing so dates a man as to decry the younger generation. — Adlai E. Stevenson

[I]t is difficult to picture the great Creator conceiving of a program of one creature (which He has made) using another living creature for purposes of experimentation. There must be other, less cruel ways of obtaining knowledge. — Adlai Stevenson I

She was the kind of person who would rather light a candle than curse the darkness. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

Carelessness about our security is dangerous, carelessness about our freedom is also dangerous. — Adlai Stevenson I

Making peace is harder than making war. — Adlai E. Stevenson

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. — Adlai Stevenson

The university is the archive of the Western mind, it's the keeper of the Western culture, ... the guardian of our heritage, the teacher of our teachers, ... the dwelling place of the free mind. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for. — Adlai E. Stevenson

There is a spiritual hunger in the world today - and it cannot be satisfied by better cars on longer credit terms. — Adlai E. Stevenson

You will find that the truth is often unpopular and the contest between agreeable fancy and disagreeable fact is unequal. For, in the vernacular, we Americans are suckers for good news. — Adlai E. Stevenson

The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. So we must never neglect any work of peace within our reach, however small. — Adlai E. Stevenson

I think that one of the most fundamental responsibilities is to give testimony in a court of law, to give it honestly and willingly. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Someone asked me ... how it felt and I was reminded of a story that a fellow townsman of ours used to tell
Abraham Lincoln. They asked him how he felt once after an unsuccessful election. He said he felt like a little boy who had stubbed his toe in the dark. He said that he was too old to cry, but it hurt too much to laugh. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions. — Adlai Stevenson I

We must recover the element of quality in our traditional pursuit of equality. We must not, in opening our schools to everyone, confuse the idea that all should have equal chance with the notion that all have equal endowments. — Adlai E. Stevenson

I have tried to talk about the issues in this campaign ... and this has sometimes been a lonely road, because I never meet anybody coming the other way. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Even before I could vote, I was involved in the political arena. My father was an admirer of Adlai Stevenson, and he took me to the Stevenson for President headquarters, and he volunteered me. That was my introduction to electoral politics, which was exciting and fun and thrilling and very theatrical. — George Takei

That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another. — Adlai E. Stevenson

We have confused the free with the free and easy. — Adlai E. Stevenson

It is often easier to fight for one's principles than it is to live up to them. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans. — Adlai E. Stevenson

You know, you really can't beat a household commodity - the ketchup bottle on the kitchen table. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Men may be born free; they cannot be born wise; and it is the duty of the university to make the free wise. — Adlai Stevenson I

There are two Americas. One is the America of Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson; the other is the America of Teddy Roosevelt and the modern superpatriots. One is generous and humane, the other narrowly egotistical; one is self-critical, the other self-righteous; one is sensible, the other romantic; one is good-humored, the other solemn; one is inquiring, the other pontificating; one is moderate, the other filled with passionate intensity; one is judicious and the other arrogant in the use of great power. — J. William Fulbright

Communism is the death of the soul. It is the organization of total conformity - in short, of tyranny - and it is committed to making tyranny universal. — Adlai E. Stevenson

I believe that if we really want human brotherhood to spread and increase until it makes life safe and sane, we must also be certain that there is no one true faith or path by which it may spread. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Nixon is finding out there are no tails on an Eisenhower jacket. — Adlai E. Stevenson

A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation. — Adlai E. Stevenson II

We live in an era of revolution, the revolution of rising expectations. — Adlai Stevenson

The best reason I can think of for not running for President of the United States is that you have to shave twice a day. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Your days are short here; this is the last of your springs. And now in the serenity and quiet of this lovely place, touch the depths of truth, feel the hem of Heaven. You will go away with old, good friends. And don't forget when you leave why you came. — Adlai E. Stevenson

An Independent is someone who wants to take the politics out of politics. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Journalists do not live by words alone, although sometimes they have to eat them. — Adlai E. Stevenson

A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady; but a newspaper can always print a retraction. — Adlai E. Stevenson

A man doesn't save a century, or a civilization, but a militant party wedded to a principle can. — Adlai Stevenson I

Manners matter as this author memorably illustrates. Eleanor Roosevelt stubbornly kept her clout behind Adlai Stevenson was an almost visceral resistance to John F. Kennedy's charms as a newcomer to power. The sudden death of Eleanor's granddaughter shortly before JFK was to meet with her suggested that rapprochement was impossible. Kennedy's genuine gentle manners toward the grieving former first lady won her over and may have shifted the balance in an extremely close election. — David Pietrusza

In America any boy may become President, and I suppose it's just one of the risks he takes. — Adlai Stevenson

Saskatchewan is much like Texas - except it's more friendly to the United States. — Adlai Stevenson

The whole basis of the United Nations is the right of all nations - great or small - to have weight, to have a vote, to be attended to, to be a part of the twentieth century. — Adlai E. Stevenson

An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Law is not a profession at all, but rather a business service station and repair shop. — Adlai E. Stevenson

But the Wisconsin tradition meant more than a simple belief in the people. It also meant a faith in the application of intelligence and reason to the problems of society. It meant a deep conviction that the role of government was not to stumble along like a drunkard in the dark, but to light its way by the best torches of knowledge and understanding it could find. — Adlai Stevenson

A wise man who stands firm is a statesman, a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe. — Adlai Stevenson I

The human race has improved everything, but the human race. — Adlai E. Stevenson

The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live, and fear breeds repression. Too often sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind, are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-communism. — Adlai Stevenson I

In the 1960 campaign, Arthur Schlesinger wrote of Adlai Stevenson, who already lost twice as the party's presidential nominee, He has been away from power too long; he gives me an odd sense of unreality, a certain frivolity, distractedness, over-interest in words and phrases. — David Pietrusza

It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Adlai Stevenson, himself a notable speaker, often reminisced about his last meeting with Churchill. I asked him on whom or what he had based his oratorical style. Churchill replied, "It was an American statesman who inspired me and taught me how to use every note of the human voice like an organ." Winston then to my amazement started to quote long excerpts from Bourke Cockran's speeches of 60 years before. "He was my model," Churchill said. "I learned from him how to hold thousands in thrall." — William Bourke Cockran

Your public servants serve you right; indeed often they serve you better than your apathy and indifference deserve. — Adlai Stevenson I

The time to stop a revolution is at the beginning, not the end. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice. — Adlai E. Stevenson

Here, in the dread tribunal of last resort, valor contended against valor. Here brave men struggled and died for the right as God gave them to see the right. — Adlai Stevenson I