Top 59 Jim Hightower Quotes
#1. Some of these rich folks seem to think that everything belongs to them and they'll even get to take it with them when they die. But you know what? You don't ever see a hearse pulling a U Haul.
Jim Hightower
#3. The water won't clear up until we get the hogs out of the creek.
Jim Hightower
#4. Becoming a politician is the only step down I could take from being a journalist.
Jim Hightower
#5. Some people say we need a third party. I wish we had a second one.
Jim Hightower
#6. The only difference between a pigeon and the American farmer today is that a pigeon can still make a deposit on a John Deere.
Jim Hightower
#7. Organic agriculture is more about fairness and respect than it is about parts-per-billion of pesticide residues
Jim Hightower
#8. The issue isn't just jobs. Even slaves had jobs. The issue is wages.
Jim Hightower
#9. So now is the time, more than ever, for those who truly value all the principles of democracy, especially including dissent, to be the most forceful in speaking up, standing up and speaking out.
Jim Hightower
#10. America's drug war is so stupid that if you pay close attention to just how stupid it is
it'll drive you to use drugs.
Jim Hightower
#12. The middle of the road is for yellow lines and dead armadillos.
Jim Hightower
#13. This is a matter of public health. The public was sick and tired of DeLay and his corruption.
Jim Hightower
#14. We've got to go to the people with bold ideas and candidates of conviction - we've got to be hotter than high school love.
Jim Hightower
#15. The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.
Jim Hightower
#16. Politics ought to be fun. It shouldn't be just boring meetings.
Jim Hightower
#17. But, as my mother used to tell me, two wrongs don't make a right. But I soon figured out that three left turns do.
Jim Hightower
#18. Good wages are pro business, since they reduce turnover, increase morale, produce better-skilled employees, and improve productivity.
Jim Hightower
#19. Politics isn't about left versus right; it's about top versus bottom.
Jim Hightower
#20. Founders v. Bush brings the wisdom and eloquence of the Founding Fathers back to the people, while unmasking the fraudulent PR machine that is corrupting their words and stealing our legacy.
Jim Hightower
#21. What's new is that the White House itself has now been corporatized. It's not politicians working for the corporate interests. They are the corporate interests. That's where Bush came from, and Cheney and Rumsfeld.
Jim Hightower
#23. When I entered politics, I took the only downward turn you could take from journalism.
Jim Hightower
#24. You can't do progressive government from the inside. You have to rally those outsiders and make them a force.
Jim Hightower
#25. If ignorance goes to forty dollars a barrel, I want drilling rights to George Bush's head.
Jim Hightower
#26. Even the smallest dog can lift its leg on the tallest building.
Jim Hightower
#27. The corporation cannot be ethical, its only responsibility is to make a profit.
Jim Hightower
#28. The media isn't only asleep; it doesn't want to know this news, that the people are revolting, in the very best sense of the term, revolting against the thieves in high places and reaching out to each other, which is our great strength.
Jim Hightower
#29. But the good news is that out in the countryside, just about every place that's got a zip code has somebody or some group of people battling the economic and political exclusion that Wall Street and Washington are shoving down our throats.
Jim Hightower
#30. The real bias of the media is not to the left or to the right, but to the thin strata of economic elites at the top of our society.
Jim Hightower
#31. There's enormous progressive activism and, more often than not, success at the grassroots level - everything from living wage campaigns to efforts to finance our elections are having terrific success.
Jim Hightower
#32. When Rick Perry says I can do for America what I've done for Texas, pay attention. That's no idle threat.
Jim Hightower
#33. There's nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow stripe and dead armadillos.
Jim Hightower
#34. If you don't speak out now when it matters, when would it matter for you to speak out?
Jim Hightower
#35. It's an essential fight librarians are making, an age-old fight; yours is a battle for civilization. It's a fight for our country's founding values.
Jim Hightower
#36. Reagan promised everyone a seven-course dinner. Ours turned out to be a possum and a six-pack.
Jim Hightower
#37. The original Greek word "idiotes" referred to people who might have had a high IQ, but were so self-involved that they focused exclusively on their own life and were both ignorant of and uncaring about public concerns and the common good.
Jim Hightower
#38. Well, I've been in the political arena all of my life, and 10 years of that as a candidate and elected official, and that's about enough.
Jim Hightower
#39. Do something. If it doesn't work, do something else. No idea is too crazy.
Jim Hightower
#40. Like NASCAR race drivers or PGA golfers, why not require each of the [US presidential] candidates to cover their clothing, briefcases and staff with the logo patches of their corporate sponsors?
Jim Hightower
#41. It's hard for the donkeys to win the race if they're going to carry the elephants on their backs.
Jim Hightower
#42. It's hard to believe President George Bush gave a speech in New Orleans about disaster recovery and failed to mention the word 'farm' or the word 'rural.'
Jim Hightower
#43. Republicans are so empty-headed, they wouldn't make a good landfill.
Jim Hightower
#44. America was not built by conformists, but by mutineers.
Jim Hightower
#45. The Bible declares that on the sixth day God created man. Right then and there, God should have demanded a damage deposit.
Jim Hightower
#46. It may be the rooster that does all the crowing but it's the hen that delivers the goods.
Jim Hightower
#47. When everybody does better, EVERYBODY does better.
Jim Hightower
#48. Democracy is not something that happens, you know, just at election time, and it's not something that happens just with one event. It's an ongoing building process. But it also ought to be a part of our culture, a part of our lives.
Jim Hightower
#49. The [Democratic] party is a bank. It collects money and gives it to TV stations.
Jim Hightower
#50. If you can't be a populist in Arkansas, you ain't going to be a populist in Washington.
Jim Hightower
#51. The corporations don't have to lobby the government anymore. They are the government.
Jim Hightower
#52. If it's dangerous to talk to yourself, it's probably even dicier to listen.
Jim Hightower
#53. If you don't speak out when it matters, when would it matter to speak out?
Jim Hightower
#54. Little ol' boy in the Panhandle told me the other day you can still make a small fortune in agriculture. Problem is, you got to start with a large one.
Jim Hightower
#55. Liberals want to manage the damage with government programs to take care of those who have fallen between the cracks. Populists want to fix the cracks so that people don't fall in the first place.
Jim Hightower
#56. Banks don't commit crimes. Bankers do. And they won't ever stop if they don't have to pay for their crimes.
Jim Hightower
#57. Ronald Reagan's idea of a good farm program was Hee Haw.
Jim Hightower
#58. Populism is not a style, it's a people's rebellion against the iron grip that big corporations have on our country - including our economy, government, media, and environment.
Jim Hightower
#59. The good news, though, is that I find in my political travels that people, as regular citizens, are more interested than ever in getting together and having discussions. They want to hear about other viewpoints that differ entirely from what the administration is putting out.
Jim Hightower
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