44 years ago today, Adlai E. Stevenson died of a heart attack in London. I just thought he should be remembered, because he set a standard for intelligence, wit and dedication to which we should all aspire.
He had served as Governor of Illinois and was twice the Democratic nominee for President against Dwight D. Eisenhour. He ran a third time in 1960, but John F. Kennedy secured the Democratic Nomination. Kennedy then appointed Stevenson as the US Ambassador to the United Nations.
For many in my father's generation he was the paragon of "Liberal". Many of my own beliefs are the result of my Dad's "passing the torch" of liberalism on to me.
Below the fold are many Adlai Stevenson Quotes, mostly from wikipedia.
"Ignorance is stubborn and prejudice dies hard."
According to "The Home Book of American Quotations" (1967), by Bruce Bohle, Stevenson said this in an address to the United Nations on October 1, 1963.
"I have sometimes said that flattery is all right, Mr. President, if you don't inhale it."
Opening sentence of Stevenson's first appearance at the UN as UN Ambassador, February 1, 1961. From "Looking Outward", by Adlai Stevenson, p. 3.
"The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum."
The New York Times (19 January 1962)
"The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. So we must never neglect any work of peace within our reach, however small."
As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 508
"There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody."
As quoted in The Stevenson Wit (1965) edited by Bill Adler
"We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil; all committed, for our safety, to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and the love we give our fragile craft. We cannot maintain it half fortunate, half miserable, half confident, half despairing, half slave — to the ancient enemies of man — half free in a liberation of resources undreamed of until this day. No craft, no crew can travel safely with such vast contradictions. On their resolution depends the survival of us all."
Speech to the UN Economic and Social Council, Geneva, Switzerland (9 July 1965)
"You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad.
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Address to the State Committee of the Liberal Party in New York City, Faith in Liberalism
"The elephant has a thick skin, a head full of ivory, and as everyone who has seen a circus parade knows, proceeds best by grasping the tail of its predecessor."
Comment on the 1960 Richard Nixon presidential campaign and the Republican symbol, in news summaries (30 August 1960), as quoted in The New Language of Politics: An Anecdotal Dictionary of Catchwords, Slogans and Political Usage (1968) by William Safire
"We talk a great deal about patriotism. 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 which will enable America to remain master of her power — to walk with it in serenity and wisdom, with self-respect and the respect of all mankind; a patriotism that puts country ahead of self; a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. The dedication of a lifetime — these are words that are easy to utter, but this is a mighty assignment. For it is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.
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"The problem of cat versus bird is as old as time. If we attempt to resolve it by legislation who knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age old problems of dog versus cat, bird versus bird, or even bird versus worm. In my opinion, the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency.
For these reasons, and not because I love birds the less or cats the more, I veto and withhold my approval from Senate Bill No. 93."
Vetoing a Bill that would have imposed fines on owners who allowed cats to run at large. (23 April 1949)
"What counts now is not just what we are against, but what we are for. Who leads us is less important than what leads us — what convictions, what courage, what faith — win or lose. A man doesn't save a century, or a civilization, but a militant party wedded to a principle can."
Address to the Democratic National Convention, Chicago, Illinois. (21 July 1952); published in Speeches of Adlai Stevenson (1952) p. 17
"I do not believe it is man's destiny to compress this once boundless earth into a small neighborhood, the better to destroy it. Nor do I believe it is in the nature of man to strike eternally at the image of himself, and therefore of God. I profoundly believe that there is on this horizon, as yet only dimly perceived, a new dawn of conscience. In that purer light, people will come to see themselves in each other, which is to say they will make themselves known to one another by their similarities rather than by their differences. Man's knowledge of things will begin to be matched by man's knowledge of self. The significance of a smaller world will be measured not in terms of military advantage, but in terms of advantage for the human community. It will be the triumph of the heartbeat over the drumbeat.
These are my beliefs and I hold them deeply, but they would be without any inner meaning for me unless I felt that they were also the deep beliefs of human beings everywhere. And the proof of this, to my mind, is the very existence of the United Nations."
Speech in Springfield Illinois (24 October 1952)
"Well, speaking as a Christian, I would like to say that I find the Apostle Paul appealing and the Apostle Peale appalling."
Opening sentence of remarks to a Baptist convention in Texas during 1952 Presidential campaign. In his introduction the host had said that Stevenson had been asked to speak "just as a courtesy, because Dr. Norman Vincent Peale has already instructed us to vote for your opponent." From Humor in the White House: The Wit of Five American Presidents (2001) by Arthur A. Sloane
"What a man knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty is, for the most part, incommunicable. The laws, the aphorisms, the generalizations, the universal truths, the parables and the old saws — all of the observations about life which can be communicated handily in ready, verbal packages — are as well known to a man at twenty who has been attentive as to a man at fifty. He has been told them all, he has read them all, and he has probably repeated them all before he graduates from college; but he has not lived them all.
What he knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty boils down to something like this: The knowledge he has acquired with age is not the knowledge of formulas, or forms of words, but of people, places, actions — a knowledge not gained by words but by touch, sight, sound, victories, failures, sleeplessness, devotion, love — the human experiences and emotions of this earth and of oneself and other men; and perhaps, too, a little faith, and a little reverence for things you cannot see."
Address at Princeton University, "The Educated Citizen" (22 March 1954)
"All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions. All change is the result of a change in the contemporary state of mind. Don't be afraid of being out of tune with your environment, and above all pray God that you are not afraid to live, to live hard and fast. To my way of thinking it is not the years in your life but the life in your years that count in the long run. You'll have more fun, you'll do more and you'll get more, you'll give more satisfaction the more you know, the more you have worked, and the more you have lived. For yours is a great adventure at a stirring time in the annals of men."
Address at Princeton University, "The Educated Citizen" (22 March 1954)
"Unreason and anti-intellectualism abominate thought. Thinking implies disagreement; and disagreement implies nonconformity; and nonconformity implies heresy; and heresy implies disloyalty — so, obviously, thinking must be stopped. But shouting is not a substitute for thinking and reason is not the subversion but the salvation of freedom."
A Call to Greatness (1954), p. 99
"Our nation stands at a fork in the political road. In one direction lies a land of slander and scare; the land of sly innuendo, the poison pen, the anonymous phone call and hustling, pushing, shoving; the land of smash and grab and anything to win. This is Nixonland. But I say to you that it is not America."
Speech in Los Angeles California (27 October 1956), as quoted in The New America (1971), edited by Seymour E. Harris, John B. Martin, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., p. 249
The above quotes are from wiki, but I have included some Unverified Attributions from various sources:
"We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present."
"Change is inevitable. Change for the better is a full-time job."
"A hungry man is not a free man."
"An Independent is someone who wants to take the politics out of politics."
"I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them."
"I'm not an old, experienced hand at politics. But I am now seasoned enough to have learned that the hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning."
"Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans."
"On the plains of hesitation lie the blackened bones of countless millions who at the dawn of victory lay down to rest, and in resting died."
"Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for."
"Saskatchewan is much like Texas- except it's more friendly to the United States."
"Some people approach every problem with an open mouth."
"The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process."
"Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse."
"To act coolly, intelligently and prudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man - and also a nation."
"The New Dealers have all left Washington to make way for the car dealers."
"The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning."