Hubert H. Humphrey Quotes

The great challenge which faces us is to assure that, in our society of big-ness, we do not strangle the voice of creativity, that the rules of the game do not come to overshadow its purpose, that the grand orchestration of society leaves ample room for the man who marches to the music of another drummer.

Slumism is the pent-up anger of people living on the outside of affluence. Slumism is decay of structure and deterioration of the human spirit. Slumism is a virus which spreads through the body politic. As other "isms," it breeds disorder and demagoguery and hate.

Profit and morality are a hard combination to beat.

The Senate is a place filled with goodwill and good intentions, and if the road to hell is paved with them, then it's a pretty good detour.

The road to freedom, here and everywhere, begins in the classroom.

We live by hope. We do not ever get all we want when we want it. But we have to believe that someday, somehow, some way, it will be better and that we can make it so.

In life it isn't what you've lost, it's what you've got left that counts

Leadership in today's world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.

If I believe in something, I will fight for it with all I have. But I do not demand all or nothing. I would rather get something than nothing. Professional liberals want the fiery debate. They glory in defeat. The hardest job for a politician today is to have the courage to be a moderate. It's easy to take an extreme position.

Behind every successful man is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law.

The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadows of states rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights

Here we are the way politics ought to be in America; the politics of happiness, the politics of purpose and the politics of joy.

We will be remembered not for the power of our weapons but for the power of our compassion, our dedication to human welfare.

My philosophy has always been that benefits should percolate up rather than trickle down.

The difference between hearsay and prophecy is often one of sequence. Hearsay often turns out to have been prophecy.

The way we treat our children in the dawn of their lives and the way we treat our elderly in the twilight of their lives is a measure of the quality of a nation.

If I believe in something, I will fight for it, with all I have. But I do not demand all or nothing. I would rather get something than nothing.

A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a practice of tenure in public office.

It is better to gain a foot than to stand still, even when you seek to gain a mile.

The measure of a civilization is how it treats those at the dawn of life, the margins of life and the twilight of life.

Peace of mind is another way of saying that you've learned how to love, that you have come to appreciate the importance of giving love in order to be worthy of receiving it.

I am absolutely disgusted that anyone would put thousands of America's boys at risk just to win a Political Campaign.

The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.

In this time of national crises...per haps we would do well to spend a few minutes in considering projects which grace and embellish the earth, instead of shaking it.

People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can't pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as exotic but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.

You cannot go around and keep score. If you keep score on the good things and the bad things, you'll find out that you're a very miserable person. God gave man the ability to forget, which is one of the greatest attributes you have. Because if you remember everything that's happened to you, you generally remember that which is the most unfortunate.

This is the first generation in all of recorded history that can do something about the scourge of poverty. We have the means to do it. We can banish hunger from the face of the earth.

Much of our American progress has been the product of the individual who had an idea; pursued it; fashioned it; tenaciously clung to it against all odds; and then produced it, sold it, and profited from it.

Our opposition will never understand the Democratic Party. Our Party is--to the unpracticed eyes of the old Republican Tories--a mysterious contraption that usually seems to be moving in a thousand directions. What they don't know is what hurts them. For all that movement in the Democratic Party is caused by the internal combustion of creative ferment, of ideas, of people vigorously committed to the proposition that change and social progress are not only to be desired; they are necessities of twentieth-century America.

Propaganda, to be effective, must be believed. To be believed, it must be credible. To be credible, it must be true.

We are in danger of making our cities places where business goes on but where life, in its real sense, is lost.

Before people will do anything, they have got to eat. And if you are really looking for a way for people to lean on you and to be dependent on you, in terms of their cooperation with you, it seems to me that food dependence would be terrific.

There is a lot of difference between failure and defeat. Failure is when you are defeated and neither learn nor contribute anything.

You can't hoot with the owls and then soar with the eagles

Just be what you are and speak from your guts and heart - it's all a person has.

Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.

Fortunately, the time has long passed when people liked to regard the United States as some kind of melting pot, taking men and women from every part of the world and converting them into standardized, homogenized Americans. We are, I think, much more mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity -- an America all the richer for the many different and distinctive strands of which it is woven.

It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.

The history of the labor movement needs to be taught in every school in this land. America is a living testimonial to what free men and women, organized in free democratic trade unions can do to make a better life. We ought to be proud of it!

The President is the peoples lobbyist.

National isolation breeds national neurosis.

American public opinion is like an ocean, it cannot be stirred by a teaspoon.

The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.

It is always a risk to speak to the press: they are likely to report what you say.

The pursuit of peace resembles the building of a great cathedral. It is the work of a generation. In concept it requires a mater-architect; in execution, the labors of many.

My favorite sandwich is peanut butter, baloney, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and mayonnaise on toasted bread with catsup on the side.

Peace is not passive, it is active. Peace is not appeasement, it is strength. Peace does not 'happen,' it requires work.

The President has only 190 million bosses. The Vice President has 190 million and one.