Quotes from Adlai Stevenson

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.

It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming.

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.

Adulation is all right if you don't inhale.

Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice.

She would rather light candles than curse the darkness and her glow has warmed the world.

If the pursuit of peace is both old and new it is also both complicated and simple. It is complicated for it has to do with people and nothing in this universe baffles man as much as man himself.

They pick a president and then for four years they pick on him.

It seems to me that government is like a pump and what it pumps up is just what we are a fair sample of the intellect the ethics and the morals of the people no better no worse.

I remember my father telling me the story of the preacher delivering an exhortation to his flock, and as he reached the climax of his exhortation, a man in the front row got up and said, 'O Lord, use me. Use me, O Lord - in an advisory capacity!'

Let's talk sense to the American people. Let's tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pains.

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

It is said that a wise man who stands firm is a statesman, and a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe.

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

Laws are never as effective as habits.

It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.

It is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.

I have said what I meant and meant what I said. I have not done as well as I should like to have done, but I have done my best, frankly and forth-rightly; no man can do more, and you are entitled to no less.

I'm not an old, experienced hand at politics. But I am now seasoned enough to have learned that the hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.

An independent is a guy who wants to take the politics out of politics.

Someone asked me... how I 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 has stubbed his toe in the dark. He said that he was too old to cry, but it hurt too much to laugh.

Flattery is all right - if you don't inhale.

Some people approach every problem with an open mouth.

The relationship of the toastmaster to the 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.