Barbara Jordan Quotes

56 Sourced Quotes

If we promise as public officials, we must deliver. If we as public officials propose, we must produce.

Barbara Jordan
What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance.

Barbara Jordan
We were poor, but so was everyone around us, so we did not notice it.

Barbara Jordan
Let's all understand that these guiding principles cannot be discarded for short-term political gains. They represent what this country is all about. They are indigenous to the American idea. And these are principles which are not negotiable.

Barbara Jordan
A spirit of harmony will survive in America only if each of us remembers that we share a common destiny; if each of us remembers, when bitterness and self-interest seem to prevail, that we share a common destiny.

Barbara Jordan
A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.

Barbara Jordan
I have confidence that we can form this kind of national community.

Barbara Jordan
I think it no accident that most of those emigrating to America in the 19th century identified with the Democratic Party. We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.

Barbara Jordan
I have faith in young people because I know the strongest emotions which prevail are those of love and caring and belief and tolerance.

Barbara Jordan
If you're going to play the game properly you'd better know every rule.

Barbara Jordan
Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us.

Barbara Jordan
Things which matter cost money, and we've got to spend the money if we do not want to have generations of parasites rather than generations of productive citizens.

Barbara Jordan
My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.

Barbara Jordan
More is required of public officials than slogans and handshakes and press releases. More is required. We must hold ourselves strictly accountable. We must provide the people with a vision of the future.

Barbara Jordan
Where a man was concerned, the public perception was that he was supposed to get out there and lead and do and make decisions and the rest of it; and no one said to him that he needed to care for babies, or iron the curtains or clean the johns. That was not expected of him. What was expected was that he'd marry a woman to do it for him.

Barbara Jordan
I am here simply because all those people in the Eighteenth District of Texas cannot get on planes and buses and come to Washington to speak for themselves. They have elected me as their spokesperson, nothing else, and my only job is to speak for them.

Barbara Jordan
We call ourselves public servants but I'll tell you this: we as public servants must set an example for the rest of the nation. It is hypocritical for the public official to admonish and exhort the people to uphold the common good.

Barbara Jordan
I find teaching extraordinarily satisfying. I realize that probably through my entire political career I was training for this.... I'm teaching young people who will move into local, state, and federal positions of power.... Some will run for political office. It's a remarkable opportunity to have an impact on the generation that will succeed me.

Barbara Jordan
Speaking for myself, I wish that we would get past all the hyphenations that seem to be dividing our society. We must let all Americans be Americans, regardless of where their ancestors were born. Social cohesion requires it. Public policy should support it.

Barbara Jordan
There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.

Barbara Jordan
To deny birthright citizenship would derail this engine of American liberty.

Barbara Jordan
Those who hold the public trust must adhere to the highest ethical standards there are. The job requires it, and the public must demand it.

Barbara Jordan
This country can ill afford to continue to function using less than half of its human resources, less than half its kinetic energy, less than half its brain power.

Barbara Jordan
You need a core inside you — a core that directs everything you do. You confer with it for guidance. It is not negotiable.

Barbara Jordan
The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems.

Barbara Jordan
The Bill of Rights was not ordained by nature or God. It's very human, very fragile.

Barbara Jordan