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 Humphrey
Topics: War
The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Romance, Health
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 Humphrey
Topics: Names, Identity
The pursuit of peace resembles the building of a great cathedral. It is the work of a generation. In concept it requires a master-architect; in execution, the labors of many.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Peace
Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Weakness, Compassion
Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.
—Hubert Humphrey
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 Humphrey
Topics: Gratitude, Revolutionaries, Attitude, Revolutions, Appreciation, Doing Your Best, Revolution, Blessings
We are in danger of making our cities places where business goes on but where life, in its real sense, is lost.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: City Life, Cities
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.
—Hubert Humphrey
The heroes of the world community are not those who withdraw when difficulties ensue, not those who can envision neither the prospect of success nor the consequence of failure—but those who stand the heat of battle, the fight for world peace through the United Nations.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Nationalism, Nationality, Nation
The President is the people’s lobbyist.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Presidency
I think the worst thing this nation could do for humanity would be to leave any uncertainty as to our will, our purpose and our capacity to carry out our purpose.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Uncertainty, Respect, Respectability
The difference between heresy and prophecy is often one of sequence. Heresy often turns out to have been prophecy—when properly aged.
—Hubert Humphrey
Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of the citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government and one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Government
To be realistic today is to be visionary. To be realistic is to be starry-eyed.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Reality
Propaganda, to be effective, must be believed. To be believed, it must be credible. To be credible, it must be true.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Propaganda
The essence of statesmanship is not a rigid adherence to the past, but a prudent and probing concern for the future.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Politics
A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a practice of tenure in public office.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Politicians, Politics
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
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Government, Right, Ethics, Service
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 Humphrey
Topics: Poverty
There are not enough jails, not enough policemen, not enough law courts, to enforce a law not supported by the people.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Laws
Just be what you are and speak from your guts and heart—it’s all a man has.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Instincts
Leadership in today’s world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Leaders, Leadership
Each child is an adventure into a better life—an opportunity to change the old pattern and make it new.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Children
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 Humphrey
Topics: Revolutions, Revolutionaries, Revolution
Profit and morality are a hard combination to beat.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Profit
We should have learnt by now that laws and court decisions can only point the way. They can establish criteria of right and wrong. And they can provide a basis for rooting out the evils of bigotry and racism. But they cannot wipe away centuries of oppression and injustice—however much we might desire it.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Law
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 Humphrey
National isolation breeds national neurosis.
—Hubert Humphrey
Topics: Isolation, Solitude
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.
—Hubert Humphrey
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Lyndon B. Johnson American Head of State
- Richard Nixon American Head of State
- Charles G. Dawes American Diplomat, Politician
- John F. Kennedy American Head of State
- Ronald Reagan American Head of State
- Calvin Coolidge American Head of State
- John C. Calhoun American Head of State
- Jimmy Carter American Head of State
- Dan Quayle American Head of State
- Adlai Stevenson American Diplomat
Leave a Reply