Top 100 Hubert Humphrey Sayings
#2. Hubert Humphrey advised new members, If you feel an urge to stand up and make a speech attacking Vietnamese policy, don't make it.
Barbara W. Tuchman
#3. After one of his [Hubert Humphrey] long-winded harangues I suggested he had probably been vaccinated with a phonograph needle. He responded by saying that I would have been a great success in the movies working for Eighteenth Century-Fox.
Barry Goldwater
#5. Hubert Humphrey with kids"Be clear where America stands. Human brotherhood and equal opportunity for every man, woman, and child, we are committed to it, in America and around the world."
Hubert H. Humphrey
#6. I am a Minnesotan, and not just because I root for the Vikings and the Twins. I like the Minnesota-nice sensibility. I like the liberal tradition; I like the Hubert Humphrey tradition fighting for civil rights.
Al Franken
#7. When I did 'Esquire,' I did a lot of celebrity covers, but the celebrity cover was Hubert Humphrey as a dummy, sitting on Lyndon Johnson's lap and aping his feelings about the war. I did celebrity covers that made a difference in what was going on in American culture.
George Lois
#8. Hubert Humphrey's wife is said to have advised him: Darling, for a speech to be immortal it need not be interminable.
Peggy Noonan
#9. Hubert Humphrey is a treacherous, gutless old ward-heeler who should be put in a goddamn bottle and sent out with the Japanese current.
Hunter S. Thompson
#10. 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.
Hubert Humphrey, as quoted by Biden, p. 134
Joe Biden
#11. Perhaps the cruelest thing ever said of Hubert Humphrey was that he had the soul of a vice president.
Susan Estrich
#12. We will be remembered not for the power of our weapons but for the power of our compassion, our dedication to human welfare.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#13. Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#14. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#15. The measure of a civilization is how it treats those at the dawn of life, the margins of life and the twilight of life.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#16. More progress results from the violent execution of an imperfect plan than the perfection of a plan to violently execute.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#18. The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#19. Peace is not passive, it is active. Peace is not appeasement, it is strength. Peace does not 'happen,' it requires work.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#20. There are incalculable resources in the human spirit, once it has been set free.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#21. 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 .
Hubert H. Humphrey
#22. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#23. If today there is a proper American "sphere of influence" it is this fragile sphere called earth upon which all men live and share a common fate
a sphere where our influence must be for peace and justice.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#24. The ugliness of bigotry stands in direct contradiction to the very meaning of America.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#26. I've never thought my speeches were too long; I've rather enjoyed them.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#27. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#28. I am not here to judge whether people are locked in poverty because of themselves or because of the society in which they live. All I know is that they are there and we are trying to do something about it.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#29. There can be no compromise on the right of personal security; there can be no compromise on securing of human rights.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#30. Liberalism, above all, means emancipation - emancipation from one's fears, his inadequacies, from prejudice, from discrimination, from poverty.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#31. Equality means equality for all- no exceptions, no 'yes, buts', no asterisked footnotes imposing limits.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#32. The road to freedom, here and everywhere, begins in the classroom.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#33. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#35. We will have to decide today whether we will design the future or resign ourselves to it.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#36. In life it isn't what you've lost, it's what you've got left that counts
Hubert H. Humphrey
#37. We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#38. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#39. Hubert, a speech doesn't have to be eternal to be immortal.
Muriel Humphrey
#40. I am absolutely disgusted that anyone would put thousands of America's boys at risk just to win a Political Campaign.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#41. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#42. Life's unfairness is not irrevocable; we can help balance the scales for others, if not always for ourselves.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#43. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#44. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#45. There are those who say to you - we are rushing this issue of civil rights. I say we are 172 years late.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#46. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#47. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#48. 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
Hubert H. Humphrey
#49. Here we are the way politics ought to be in America; the politics of happiness, the politics of purpose and the politics of joy.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#50. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#51. None of us would trade freedom of expression for the narrowness of the public censor. America is a free market for people who have something to say, and need not fear to say it.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#52. It is better to gain a foot than to stand still, even when you seek to gain a mile.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#53. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#55. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#57. And it is to these rights - the right of law and order, the right of life, the right of liberty, the right of a job, the right of a home in a decent neighborhood, and the right to an education - it is to these rights that I pledge my life and whatever capacity and ability I have.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#58. My philosophy has always been that benefits should percolate up rather than trickle down.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#59. Propaganda, to be effective, must be believed. To be believed, it must be credible.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#61. We are in danger of making our cities places where business goes on but where life, in its real sense, is lost.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#64. [He]talks so fast that listening to him is like trying to read Playboy magazine with your wife turning the pages.
Barry M. Goldwater
#65. The leadership for civil rights has to take place in the White House or it is going to take place in the streets.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#67. 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 shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#68. Unfortunately, our affluent society has also been an effluent society.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#69. Surely anyone who has ever been elected to public office understands that one commodity above all others, namely the trust and confidence of the people, is fundamental in maintaining a free and open political system.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#70. Though everyone has an equal right to speak,
not all have earned an equal right to be taken seriously.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#71. 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!
Hubert H. Humphrey
#72. There is a lot of difference between failure and defeat. Failure is when you are defeated and neither learn nor contribute anything.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#73. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#74. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#75. Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#77. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#78. A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a practice of tenure in public office.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#79. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#80. My favorite sandwich is peanut butter, baloney, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and mayonnaise on toasted bread with catsup on the side.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#81. I had no money to buy books, so between classes and work, I haunted the library. I even tutored in French with a sliding scale of payment: twenty dollars for an A, fifteen for a B, ten for a C, five for a D.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#82. The test we must set for ourselves is not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#83. The President has only 190 million bosses. The Vice President has 190 million and one.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#84. I do not feel that we should allow a shortage of funds to prevent cities from financing needed projects.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#85. What do we want for people? Human dignity, personal expression and fulfillment, justice, freedom.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#86. The essence of statesmanship is not a rigid adherence to the past, but a prudent and probing concern for the future.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#87. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#88. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#91. Johnson had a sense of humor, and he could kid with me," he would say. "Johnson didn't enjoy talking with most liberals. He didn't think they had a sense of humor.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#93. Asia is rich in people, rich in culture and rich in resources. It is also rich in trouble.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#94. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#95. What you do, what each of us does, has an effect on the country, the state, the nation, and the world.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#96. Senator Goldwater would have been a great success in the movies - working for 18th century Fox.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#97. Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#98. 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.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#99. The difference between hearsay and prophecy is often one of sequence. Hearsay often turns out to have been prophecy.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#100. The moral test of a society is how that society treats those who are in the dawn of life: the children; ... the elderly.
Hubert H. Humphrey
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