Hubert H. Humphrey Quotes

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Never give in and never give up.

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.

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 .

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

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.

When the dignity of one person is denied, all of us are denied.

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!

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

The ugliness of bigotry stands in direct contradiction to the very meaning of America.

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.

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

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.

Never give up on anybody.

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

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

Never answer a question from a farmer.

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.

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.

Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be very carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, and one more safeguard against tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.

The President is the peoples lobbyist.

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

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.

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

Life's unfairness is not irrevocable; we can help balance the scales for others, if not always for ourselves.

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

National isolation breeds national neurosis.

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.

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.