Adlai Stevenson II (1900–65) was an American politician and diplomat. Stevenson is renowned for his intellectual disposition, organizational skills, eloquent public speaking, and for advancing liberal ideologies within the Democratic Party.
Stevenson is also remembered for his significant landslide losses to popular war hero Dwight Eisenhower during both the 1952 and the 1956 presidential elections. Before the 1960 presidential election, Stevenson lost to Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy as the Democratic Party’s candidate. When Kennedy became president, Stevenson served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations until his death in 1965.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Adlai Stevenson
We mean by “politics” the people’s business—the most important business there is.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Politics, Being True to Yourself, Success
A hungry man is not a free man.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Freedom
Some of us worship in churches, some in synagogues, some on golf courses.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Golf
Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Survival
Golf is a fine relief from the tensions of office, but we are a little tired of holding the bag.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Golf
Flattery is all right so long as you don’t inhale.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Humility, One liners, Flattery
For my part I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Attitude, Forgiveness, Ignorance
What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility… a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Patriotism
I would rather be guilty of talking over a person’s head than behind his back.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Speaking, Speakers
Under the wide and starry sky. Dig the grave and let me lie.
—Adlai Stevenson
Understanding human needs is half the job of meeting them.
—Adlai Stevenson
The central question is whether the wonderfully diverse and gifted assemblage of human beings on this earth really knows how to run a civilization.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Civilization
Journalists do not live by words alone, although sometimes they have to eat them.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Journalism
An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Writing
Ignorance is stubborn and prejudice is hard.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Prejudice
A wise man who stands firm is a statesman, a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Control
If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Knowledge
All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Progress, Originality
I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Slander, Insults
Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Facts
I sometimes marvel at the extraordinary docility with which Americans submit to speeches.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Speaking, Speakers
What do I believe? As an American I believe in generosity, in liberty, in the rights of man. These are social and political faiths that are part of me, as they are, I suppose, part of all of us. Such beliefs are easy to express. But part of me too is my relation to all life, my religion. And this is not so easy to talk about. Religious experience is highly intimate and, for me, ready words are not at hand.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Belief
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.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Freedom
The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.
—Adlai Stevenson
Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Patriotism, Dedication
The whole basis of the United Nations is the right of all nations—great or small—to have weight, to have a vote, to be attended to, to be a part of the twentieth century.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Nationalism, Nationality, Nation
A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Politicians, Politics
It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts!
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Life and Living
There is a spiritual hunger in the world today – and it cannot be satisfied by better cars on longer credit terms
—Adlai Stevenson
We should be careful and discriminating in all the advice we give. We should be especially careful in giving advice that we would not think of following ourselves. Most of all, we ought to avoid giving counsel which we don’t follow when it damages those who take us at our word.
—Adlai Stevenson
Topics: Advice
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