This is the first generation in all of recorded history that can do something about the scourge of poverty. We have the means to do it. We can banish hunger from the face of the earth.
It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.
We live by hope. We do not ever get all we want when we want it. But we have to believe that someday, somehow, some way, it will be better and that we can make it so.
There are not enough jails, not enough police, not enough courts to enforce a law not supported by the people.
The pursuit of peace resembles the building of a great cathedral. It is the work of a generation. In concept it requires a mater-architect; in execution, the labors of many.
In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.
Here we are the way politics ought to be in America; the politics of happiness, the politics of purpose and the politics of joy.
If there is dissatisfaction with the status quo, good. If there is ferment, so much the better. If there is restlessness, I am pleased. Then let there be ideas, and hard thought, and hard work. If man feels small, let man make himself bigger.
Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.
Propaganda, to be effective, must be believed. To be believed, it must be credible. To be credible, it must be true.
American public opinion is like an ocean, it cannot be stirred by a teaspoon.
Life’s unfairness is not irrevocable; we can help balance the scales for others, if not always for ourselves.
History teaches us that the great revolutions aren’t started by people who are utterly down and out, without hope and vision. They take place when people begin to live a little better – and when they see how much yet remains to be achieved.
I am absolutely disgusted that anyone would put thousands of America’s boys at risk just to win a Political Campaign.
If I believe in something, I will fight for it, with all I have. But I do not demand all or nothing. I would rather get something than nothing.
In life it isn’t what you’ve lost, it’s what you’ve got left that counts.
And it is to these rights – the right of law and order, the right of life, the right of liberty, the right of a job, the right of a home in a decent neighborhood, and the right to an education – it is to these rights that I pledge my life and whatever capacity and ability I have.
Surely anyone who has ever been elected to public office understands that one commodity above all others, namely the trust and confidence of the people, is fundamental in maintaining a free and open political system.
The road to freedom, here and everywhere, begins in the classroom.
The ugliness of bigotry stands in direct contradiction to the very meaning of America.