It is always a risk to speak to the press: they are likely to report what you say.
Freedom is the most contagious virus known to man.
The good old days were never that good, believe me. The good new days are today, and better days are coming tomorrow. Our greatest songs are still unsung.
Behind every successful man is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law.
There can be no compromise on the right of personal security; there can be no compromise on securing of human rights.
You can always debate about what you should have done. The question is what are you going to do?
The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.
Slumism is the pent-up anger of people living on the outside of affluence. Slumism is decay of structure and deterioration of the human spirit. Slumism is a virus which spreads through the body politic. As other “isms,” it breeds disorder and demagoguery and hate.
What you do, what each of us does, has an effect on the country, the state, the nation, and the world.
Each child is an adventure into a better life – an opportunity to change the old pattern and make it new.
There are incalculable resources in the human spirit, once it has been set free.
There are those who say to you – we are rushing this issue of civil rights. I say we are 172 years late.
Liberalism, above all, means emancipation – emancipation from one’s fears, his inadequacies, from prejudice, from discrimination, from poverty.
The way we treat our children in the dawn of their lives and the way we treat our elderly in the twilight of their lives is a measure of the quality of a nation.
Leadership in today’s world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.
There is no such thing as an acceptable level of unemployment, because hunger is not acceptable, poverty is not acceptable, poor health is not acceptable, and a ruined life is not acceptable.
For the first time in the history of mankind, one generation literally has the power to destroy the past, the present and the future, the power to bring time to an end.
The gap between the rich and the poor is the most dangerous threat to world peace we have.
Peace is not passive, it is active. Peace is not appeasement, it is strength. Peace does not ‘happen,’ it requires work.
I do not feel that we should allow a shortage of funds to prevent cities from financing needed projects.