Hubert H. Humphrey Quotations

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

The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love.

There is in every American, I think, something of the old Daniel Boone - who, when he could see the smoke from another chimney, felt himself too crowded and moved further out into the wilderness.

The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.

Liberalism, above all, means emancipation - emancipation from one's fears, his inadequacies, from prejudice, from discrimination, from poverty.

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.

If there is dissatisfaction with the status quo, good. If there is ferment, so much the better. If there is restlessness, I am pleased. Then let there be ideas, and hard thought, and hard work. If man feels small, let man make himself bigger.

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

This, then, is the test we must set for ourselves; not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us.

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.

Each child is an adventure into a better life - an opportunity to change the old pattern and make it new.

Anyone who thinks that the vice-president can take a position independent of the president of his administration simply has no knowledge of politics or government. You are his choice in a political marriage, and he expects your absolute loyalty.

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

There are not enough jails, not enough police, not enough courts to enforce a law not supported by the people.

In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.

To err is human. To blame someone else is politics.

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

To be realistic today is to be visionary. To be realistic is to be starry-eyed.

It is not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left.

Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

Unfortunately, our affluent society has also been an effluent society.

For the first time in the history of mankind, one generation literally has the power to destroy the past, the present and the future, the power to bring time to an end.

I learned more about the economy from one South Dakota dust storm that I did in all my years of college.

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

Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.

Asia is rich in people, rich in culture and rich in resources. It is also rich in trouble.

Today we know that World War II began not in 1939 or 1941 but in the 1920's and 1930's when those who should have known better persuaded themselves that they were not their brother's keeper.

Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on.

Freedom is the most contagious virus known to man.

I learnt more about politics during one South Dakota dust storm than in seven years at the university.

There are those who say to you - we are rushing this issue of civil rights. I say we are 172 years late.

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

It is not enough to merely defend democracy. To defend it may be to lose it; to extend it is to strengthen it. Democracy is not property; it is an idea.

I have seen in the Halls of Congress more idealism, more humanness, more compassion, more profiles of courage than in any other institution that I have ever known.

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

There are incalculable resources in the human spirit, once it has been set free.

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

The essence of statesmanship is not a rigid adherence to the past, but a prudent and probing concern for the future.

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

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

We hear every single day how terrible suicides are, automobile accidents are, how terrible cocaine and heroin are, murders, homicides, all of them. You put them all together, they don't come close to what this drug nicotine combined in tobacco does. Four hundred and forty thousand people a year, the equivalent of three 747s dropping out of the sky every single day of our lives. It's time we changed this folks,

We believe that to err is human. To blame it on someone else is politics.

We're going to expose what the tobacco companies knew and when they knew it. The American public is going to know how the tobacco industry manipulated kids, manipulated nicotine and manipulated public policy. Congress and the Department of Justice are going to know the pervasiveness of the fraud,

The right to be heard does not autmatically include the right to be taken seriously.

Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left.

It's disingenuous for the tobacco industry to claim that this PR stunt proves they are coming clean with the truth, ... It's like Dick Nixon taking credit for releasing the Watergate tapes.

The heroes of the world community are not those who withdraw when difficulties ensue, not those who can envision neither the prospect of success nor the consequence of failure -- but those who stand the heat of battle, the fight for world peace through the United Nations.

This is a little bit like busting a street drug dealer to get at the Colombian drug cartel,

Never give in and never give up.

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.

Never answer a question from a farmer.

When we say, 'One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all', we are talking about all people. We either ought to believe it or quit saying it .

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!

Never give up on anybody.

I believe that each of us can make a difference. That what is wrong can be made right. That people possess the basic wisdom and goodness to govern themselves without conflict.

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.

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.

What you do, what each of us does, has an effect on the country, the state, the nation, and the world.

Equality means equality for all- no exceptions, no 'yes, buts', no asterisked footnotes imposing limits.

We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit.

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

We cannot use a double standard for measuring our own and other people's policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantees of those practiced in our own country.

It the Senator can find in Title VII any language which provides that an employer will have to hire on the basis of percentage or quota related to color, race, religion, or national origin, I will start eating the pages one after another, because it is not in there.

As we begin to comprehend that the earth itself is a kind of manned spaceship hurtling through the infinity of space ~ it will seem increasingly absurd that we have not better organized the life of the human family.

The good old days were never that good, believe me. The good new days are today, and better days are coming tomorrow. Our greatest songs are still unsung.

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.

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

The President is the peoples lobbyist.

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

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

What we need are critical lovers of America - patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it.

There is no such thing as an acceptable level of unemployment, because hunger is not acceptable, poverty is not acceptable, poor health is not acceptable, and a ruined life is not acceptable.

There can be no compromise on the right of personal security; there can be no compromise on securing of human rights.

You can always debate about what you should have done. The question is what are you going to do?

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.

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.

It is all too easy for a society to measure itself against some abstract philosophical principle or political slogan. But in the end, there must remain the question: What kind of life is one society providing to the people that live in it?

The gap between the rich and the poor is the most dangerous threat to world peace we have.

To those who say, my friends, to those who say, that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years [too] late! To those who say, this civil rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: the time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights!

The message of the United States is not nuclear power. The message of the United States is a spiritual message. It is the message of human ideals; it is the message of human dignity; it is the message of the freedom of ideas, speech, press, the right to assemble, to worship, and the message of freedom of movement of people.

Though everyone has an equal right to speak, not all have earned an equal right to be taken seriously.

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

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.

History teaches us that the great revolutions aren't started by people who are utterly down and out, without hope and vision. They take place when people begin to live a little better - and when they see how much yet remains to be achieved.

We will have to decide today whether we will design the future or resign ourselves to it.

Like many things in our national life, we miscalculated. We overestimated our ability to control events, which is one of the great dangers of a great power. Power tends to be a substitute for judgment and wisdom.

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

Capital, and the question of who owns it and therefore reaps the benefit of its productiveness, is an extremely important issue that is complementary to the issue of full employment... I see these as twin pillars of our economy: Full employment of our labor resources and widespread ownership of our capital resources. Such twin pillars would go a long way in providing a firm underlying support for future economic growth that would be equitably shared.

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.

I wish to suggest that ample opportunity does exist for dissent, for protest, and for nonconformity. But I must also say that the right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

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

You cannot tell a poor boy from a small country town on the plains of South Dakota who has had the opportunity to be a teacher, a mayor, a senator, and a vice president, that America is not a nation of promise.

The leadership for civil rights has to take place in the White House or it is going to take place in the streets.

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

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.

The moral test of a society is how that society treats those who are in the dawn of life: the children; ... the elderly.

In the minds and hearts of the American people, there is a great hunger for peace based on a universal recognition of the values of freedom and human dignity.

Our greatest songs are still unsung.

More progress results from the violent execution of an imperfect plan than the perfection of a plan to violently execute.