Adlai Stevenson II Quotes

130 Sourced Quotes

Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.

Adlai Stevenson II
Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice.

Adlai Stevenson II
You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad.

Adlai Stevenson II
Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans.

Adlai Stevenson II
A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.

Adlai Stevenson II
My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.

Adlai Stevenson II
Peace is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age.

Adlai Stevenson II
You have taught me a lesson I should have learned long ago—to take counsel always of your courage and never of your fears.

Adlai Stevenson II
After four years at the United Nations I sometimes yearn for the peace and tranquillity of a political convention.

Adlai Stevenson II
A free society means a society based on free competition and there is no more important competition than competition in ideas, competition in opinion. This form of competition is essential to the preservation of a free press.

Adlai Stevenson II
Carelessness about our security is dangerous; carelessness about our freedom is also dangerous.

Adlai Stevenson II
The whole basis of the United Nations is the right of all nations great or small — to have weight, to have a vote, to be attended to, to be a part of the twentieth century.

Adlai Stevenson II
Some of us worship in churches, some in synagogues, some on golf courses … yet we are all children of the same Judaic-Christian civilization, with much the same religious background basically.

Adlai Stevenson II
The relationship of the toastmaster to speaker should be the same as that of the fan to the fan dancer. It should call attention to the subject without making any particular effort to cover it.

Adlai Stevenson II
Someone must fill the gap between platitudes and bayonets.

Adlai Stevenson II
True Patriotism, it seems to me, is based on tolerance and a large measure of humility.

Adlai Stevenson II
We cannot be any stronger in our foreign policy – for all the bombs and guns we may heap up in our arsenals – than we are in the spirit which rules inside the country. Foreign policy, like a river, cannot rise above its source.

Adlai Stevenson II
I have finally figured out what the Republican orators mean by what they call "moderate progressivism." All they mean is: "Don't just do something, Stand there."

Adlai Stevenson II
I suppose flattery hurts no one, that is, if he doesn't inhale.

Adlai Stevenson II
There is a spiritual hunger in the world today - and it cannot be satisfied by better cars on longer credit terms.

Adlai Stevenson II
The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions. But there is also, it seems to me, a moment at which democracy must prove its capacity to act. Every man has a right to be heard; but no man has the right to strangle democracy with a single set of vocal chords.

Adlai Stevenson II
The rock-bottom foundation of a free press is the integrity of the people who run it. Our press may make a million mistakes without doing itself permanent harm so long as its proprietors are steadfast in their adherence to truth.

Adlai Stevenson II
Some people approach every problem with an open mouth.

Adlai Stevenson II
Understanding human needs is half the job of meeting them.

Adlai Stevenson II
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.

Adlai Stevenson II
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.

Adlai Stevenson II
It will be helpful in our mutual objective to allow every man in America to look his neighbor in the face and see a man — not a color.

Adlai Stevenson II
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.

Adlai Stevenson II
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.

Adlai Stevenson II
The kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, and then mount the stump and make a speech on conservation.
Of Richard Nixon

Adlai Stevenson II