20th-century Political Leader Quotes

Al Gore

J. Edgar Hoover

James Jesus Angleton

Edwin Meese

Lee Atwater

Teresa Heinz Kerry

Mark Penn

The '80s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.

Of all the works of civilization that interfere with the natural water distribution system, irrigation has been by far the most pervasive and powerful.

You state that the Bureau under the [counter-intelligence program] should not attack programs of community interest such as the [Black Panther Party] "Breakfast for Children." … You have obviously missed the point.… This program was formed by the BPP for obvious reasons, including their efforts to create an image of civility, assume community control of Negroes, and to fill adolescent children with their insidious poison.

J. Edgar Hoover

Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the State.

James Jesus Angleton

Constitutional interpretation is not the business of the Court only, but also properly the business of all branches of government.

You know, winning Democratic primaries is not a qualification, or a sign, of who can win the general election. If it were, every nominee would win, because every nominee wins Democratic primaries.

I think I can best do my work as a head of a family, as a nurturer, for the family, meaning a nurturer for Pittsburgh, and in that sense what we do here can be applicable in many places in the world.

Teresa Heinz Kerry