Eugene McCarthy (1916 – 2005)
American politician from the U S state of Minnesota, serving in the U S House of Representatives (1949–1959) and the U S Senate from 1959 to 1971 and playing a major role in the 1968 presidential election, unsuccessfully seeking the Democratic nomination on an anti-Vietnam War platform.
No man could be equipped for the presidency if he has never been tempted by one of the seven cardinal sins.
The glove has been thrown to the ground,
The last choice of weapons made.
A book for one thought.
A poem for one line.
A line for one word.
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.
Now it is certain.
There is no magic stone.
No secret to be found.
One must go
With the mind's winnowed learning.
I'm kind of an accidental instrument, really, through which I hope that the judgment and the will of this nation can be expressed.
The two-party system has given this country the war of Lyndon Johnson, the Watergate of Nixon, and the incompetence of Carter. Saying we should keep the two-party system simply because it is working is like saying the Titanic voyage was a success because a few people survived on life-rafts.
I can still smell the tear gas in the Hilton Hotel.
As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences.
There is only one thing to do — take it to the country!
It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember.
The maple tree that night
Without a wind or rain
Let go its leaves
Because its time had come.
Have you ever tried to split sawdust?
I have left Act I, for involution
And Act II. There, mired in complexity
I cannot write Act III.
One thing about a pig, he thinks he's warm if his nose is warm. I saw a bunch of pigs one time that had frozen together in a rosette, each one's nose tucked under the rump of the one in front. We have a lot of pigs in politics.
The function of liberal Republicans is to shoot the wounded after the battle.
This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but to come to the aid of their country.
In politics one may remain aloof and become irrelavent or get involved and get corrupted.
We do not need presidents who are bigger than the country, but rather ones who speak for it and support it.
The Senate is the last primitive society in the world. We still worship the elders of the tribe and honor the territorial imperative.
"a light rinse" would be sufficient. Said in response to wikipedia:George Romney's claim that he had been "brainwashed" by the US military leaders in Vietnam. It is not clear where or when exactly the quote was supposedly said. See this entry from MediaMythAlert.