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Adlai Stevenson II

109 quotes

“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 II (1900–1965) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What I Think (1956), p. 55
“Every age needs men who will redeem the time by living with a vision of the things that are to be.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What I Think (1956), p. 142
“We live in a time when automation is ushering in a second industrial revolution, and the powers of the atom are about to be harnessed for ever greater production. We live at a time when even the ancient spectre of hunger is vanishing. This is the age of abundance! Never in history has there been such an opportunity to show what we can do to improve the quality of living now that the old, terrible, grinding anxieties of daily bread, of shelter and raiment are disappearing.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement at the Democratic National Convention, as quoted in Best Quotes of '54, '55, '56 (1957) edited by James Beasley Simpson, p. 58; later published in The New America (1957), p. 7
“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 Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the United Parents Association, as quoted in The New York Times (6 April 1958)
“Respect for intellectual excellence, the restoration of vigor and discipline to our ideas of study, curricula which aim at strengthening intellectual fiber and stretching the power of young minds, personal commitment and responsibility — these are the preconditions of educational recovery in America today; and, I believe, they have always been the preconditions of happiness and sanity for the human race.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the United Parents Association, as quoted in The New York Times (6 April 1958)
“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 Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Commencement address at Michigan State University The New York Times (9 June 1958)
“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 II (1900–1965) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Putting First Things First", Foreign Affairs (January 1960)
“With the supermarket as our temple and the singing commercial as our litany, are we likely to fire the world with an irresistible vision of America's exalted purpose and inspiring way of life?”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To American Aims," Life magazine (30 May 1960)
“The elephant has a thick skin, a head full of ivory, and as everyone who has seen a circus parade knows, proceeds best by grasping the tail of its predecessor.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comment on the 1960 Richard Nixon presidential campaign and the Republican symbol, in news summaries (30 August 1960), as quoted in The New Language of Politics: An Anecdotal Dictionary of Catchwords, Slogans and Politi…
“We have confused the free with the free and easy.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Putting First Things (1960)
“The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The New York Times (19 January 1962)
“She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark upon learning of the death of Eleanor Roosevelt, drawing upon the motto of the Christopher Society: "It is better to light one candle than curse the darkness." ; quoted in The New York Times (8 November 1962)
“You are in the courtroom of world opinion…. All right, sir, let me ask you one simple question: Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R. has placed and is placing medium- and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no — don't wait for the translation — yes or no?" [The Soviet representative refuses to answer.] "You can answer yes or no. You have denied they exist. I want to know if I understood you correctly. I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that's your decision. And I am also prepared to present the evidence in this room.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Soviet U.N. Ambassador Valerian A. Zorin in the United Nations Security Council during the Cuban missile crisis (25 October 1962)
“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.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Commencement address at Colby College, Waterville, Maine (June 7, 1964), reported in The Papers of Adlai E. Stevenson (1979), vol. 8, p. 567
“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 Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Foreword to booklet on interracial relations prepared by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, as quoted in The New York Times (22 June 1964)
“For my part I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response to a heckler asking him to state his beliefs, as quoted in Time magazine (1 November 1963)
“After four years at the United Nations I sometimes yearn for the peace and tranquillity of a political convention.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The New York Times (14 August 1964)
“She thought of herself as an ugly duckling, but she walked in beauty in the ghettos of the world, bringing with her the reminder of her beloved St. Francis, "It is in the giving that we receive." And wherever she walked beauty was forever there.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Paying tribute to the late Eleanor Roosevelt in a speech to the Democratic National Convention, Atlantic City, New Jersey (27 August 1964); as quoted in Adlai Stevenson (1966) by Lillian Ross, p. 28; reproduced in Ameri…
“A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Fine Art of Political Wit by Leon Harris (1964)
“Nixon is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump for a speech on conservation.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Fine Art of Political Wit by Leon Harris (1964)
“The Republicans stroke platitudes until they purr like epigrams.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Fine Art of Political Wit by Leon Harris (1964); this statement is derived from one by humorist Don Marquis
“An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Fine Art of Political Wit by Leon Harris (1964)
“The great aristocrat, the beloved leader, the profound historian, the gifted painter, the superb politician, the lord of language, the orator, the wit—yes, and the dedicated bricklayer—behind all of them was a simple man of faith, steadfast in defeat, generous in victory, resigned in age, trusting in a loving providence, and committing his achievements and his triumphs to a higher power.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Eulogizing Winston Churchill, Washington, D.C. (28 January 1965); as quoted in "Stevenson Delivers Eulogy to Churchill; 'Simple Faith in God' Cited" by the Associated Press, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (29 January 19…
“A diplomat's life is made up of three ingredients: protocol, Geritol and alcohol.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The New York Times Magazine (7 February 1965)
“We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil; all committed, for our safety, to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and the love we give our fragile craft. We cannot maintain it half fortunate, half miserable, half confident, half despairing, half slave — to the ancient enemies of man — half free in a liberation of resources undreamed of until this day. No craft, no crew can travel safely with such vast contradictions. On their resolution depends the survival of us all.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the UN Economic and Social Council, Geneva, Switzerland (9 July 1965)
“On this shrunken globe men can no longer live as strangers. Men can war against each other as hostile neighbors, as we are determined not to do; or they can co-exist in frigid isolation, as we are doing. But our prayer is that men everywhere will learn, finally, to live as brothers, to respect each other's differences, to heal each other's wounds, to promote each other's progress, and to benefit from each other's knowledge.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Man of Honor, Man of Peace : The Life and Words of Adlai Stevenson (1965) by Robert L. Polley, p. 61
“Because we believe in the free mind we are also fighting those who, in the name of anti-Communism, would assail the community of freedom itself.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Portrait — Adlai E. Stevenson : Politician, Diplomat, Friend (1965) by Alden Whitman
“You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the State Committee of the Liberal Party in New York City, Faith in Liberalism (pdf) (28 August 1952)
“A beauty is a woman you notice; a charmer is one who notices you.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Stevenson Wit (1965) edited by Bill Adler
“There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Stevenson Wit (1965) edited by Bill Adler
“There are worse things than losing an election; the worst thing is to lose one's convictions and not tell the people the truth.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Responding to an assertion that his support for a ban on nuclear testing would probably cost him votes, as quoted in As We Knew Adlai : The Stevenson Story by Twenty-two Friends (1966) by Edward P. Doyle, p. 185
“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 Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Bartlett's Unfamiliar Quotations (1971) by Leonard Louis Levinson, p. 237
“I am a lawyer. I think that one of the most fundamental responsibilities, not only of every citizen, but particularly of lawyers, is to give testimony in a court of law, to give it honestly and willingly, and it will be a very unhappy day for Anglo-Saxon justice when a man, even a man in public life, is too timid to state what he knows and what he has heard about a defendant in a criminal trial for fear that defendant might be convicted. That would to me be the ultimate timidity.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On why he gave testimony on behalf of Alger Hiss, as quoted in Adlai Stevenson of Illinois : The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (1976) by John Bartlow Martin, p. 552; also in "History Remembers…Adlai Stevenson" by Maureen Z…
“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 Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 508; this begins with a phrase derived from one in the Tao Te Ching, by Laozi
“Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady; but a newspaper can always print a retraction.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Morrow's International Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1982) by Jonathon Green
“Peace is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Seeds of Peace : A Catalogue of Quotations (1986) by Jeanne Larson and Madge Micheels, p. 203
“The art of government has grown from its seeds in the tiny city-states of Greece to become the political mode of half the world. So let us dream of a world in which all states, great and small, work together for the peaceful flowering of the republic of man.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Seeds of Peace : A Catalogue of Quotations (1986) by Jeanne Larson and Madge Micheels, p. 265
“I can't say that I love it with a fierce passion — indeed as a profession it's rather disappointing since it is not a profession at all, but rather a business service station and repair shop.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On being a lawyer, as quoted by Claire Birge in The Stevensons : A Biography of an American Family (1997) by Jean H. Baker, p. 262
“Some people approach every problem with an open mouth.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations (1998) by Connie Robertson.
“An Independent is someone who wants to take the politics out of politics.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Quotable Politician (2003) by William B. Whitman, p. 36
“It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Born to Run : Origins of the Political Career (2003) by Ronald Keith Gaddie, p. 119
“Never run against a war hero.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response when asked if he had any advice to give to a young politician, quoted in "History Remembers…Adlai Stevenson" by Maureen Zebian in The Epoch Times (4 November 2004)
“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 Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "The Bolton Embarrassment" in The Nation (1 August 2005)
“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 Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "Major Campaign Speeches of Adlai E. Stevenson" (1952), Random House. Republished in The New York Times, "Books of the Times", by Charles Poore, April 20, 1953, p. 23
“Whenever I hear one of these old guard leaders on the other side talking about cutting taxes, when he knows it means weakening the nation, I always think of that story about the tired old capitalist who was driving alone in his car one day, and finally, he said "James, drive over the bluff; I want to commit suicide.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A whistle-stop: Ypsilanti, Michigan," Major Campaign Speeches of Adlai E. Stevenson, 1952, p. 210 (1953)
“Ignorance is stubborn and prejudice dies hard.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: According to "The Home Book of American Quotations" (1967), by Bruce Bohle, Stevenson said this in an address to the United Nations on October 1, 1963
“I have sometimes said that flattery is all right, Mr. President, if you don't inhale it.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Opening sentence of Stevenson's first appearance at the UN as UN Ambassador, February 1, 1961. From "Looking Outward", by Adlai Stevenson, p. 3
“Some war hero is always getting in my way.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to Stevenson by Harry Ashmore of the Arkansas Gazette and entered by William Fulbright in the Congressional Record for July 22, 1965. According to Ashmore, Stevenson said this when he was blocked by a motorca…
“Gentlemen, there is business before your house and I propose to get right to it, obeying, as far as I can, what seems to me becoming to be known as the Republican law of gravity.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the AFL Convention in New York City, transcribed in The New York Times, September 23, 1952. In context, Stevenson was saying that the Republicans were humorless, in contrast to his own sense of humor. This qu…
“We talk a great deal about patriotism. What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility which will enable America to remain master of her power — to walk with it in serenity and wisdom, with self-respect and the respect of all mankind; a patriotism that puts country ahead of self; a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. The dedication of a lifetime — these are words that are easy to utter, but this is a mighty assignment. For it is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the American Legion convention, New York City (27 August 1952); as quoted in "Democratic Candidate Adlai Stevenson Defines the Nature of Patriotism" in Lend Me Your Ears : Great Speeches In History (2004) by W…