Adlai Stevenson (1900 – 1965)
American politician and statesman, noted for his skill in debate and oratory; Governor of Illinois, he was twice an unsuccessful candidate for President of the United States running against Dwight D Eisenhower (in 1952 and 1956).
I can't say that I love it with a fierce passion indeed as a profession it's rather disappointing since it is not a profession at all, but rather a business service station and repair shop.
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.
A wise man does not try to hurry history. Many wars have been avoided by patience and many have been precipitated by reckless haste.
An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff.
That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.
The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.
For my part I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.
True Patriotism, it seems to me, is based on tolerance and a large measure of humility.
If you will refrain from telling any lies about the Republican Party, I'lll promise not to tell the truth about the Democrats.
The time to stop a revolution is at the beginning, not the end.
I am a lawyer. I think that one of the most fundamental responsibilities, not only of every citizen, but particularly of lawyers, is to give testimony in a court of law, to give it honestly and willingly, and it will be a very unhappy day for Anglo-Saxon justice when a man, even a man in public life, is too timid to state what he knows and what he has heard about a defendant in a criminal trial for fear that defendant might be convicted. That would to me be the ultimate timidity.
A beauty is a woman you notice; a charmer is one who notices you.
Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.
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.
With the supermarket as our temple and the singing commercial as our litany, are we likely to fire the world with an irresistible vision of America's exalted purpose and inspiring way of life?
You are in the courtroom of world opinion
. All right, sir, let me ask you one simple question: Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R. has placed and is placing medium- and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no don't wait for the translation yes or no?" [The Soviet representative refuses to answer.] "You can answer yes or no. You have denied they exist. I want to know if I understood you correctly. I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that's your decision. And I am also prepared to present the evidence in this room.
I have sometimes said that flattery is all right, Mr. President, if you don't inhale it.
We have confused the free with the free and easy.
Words calculated to catch everyone may catch no one.
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.