Great Throughts Treasury

"Jerry Ford is so dumb he can't fart and chew gum at the same time."

"John F. Kennedy was the victim of the hate that was a part of our country. It is a disease that occupies the minds of the few but brings danger to the many."

"Just like the Alamo, somebody damn well needed to go to their aid. Well, by God, I'm going to Vietnam's aid."

"Let us close the springs of racial poison. Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts. Let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make our Nation whole."

"Light at the end of the tunnel? We don't even have a tunnel; we don't even know where the tunnel is."

"Making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg. It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else."

"Most of all we need an education which will create an educated mind. This is a mind not simply a repository of information and skills, but a mind that is a source of creative skepticism, characterized by a willingness to challenge old assumptions and to be challenged, a spaciousness of outlook, and convictions that are deeply held, but which new facts and new experiences can always modify."

"Never make a speech at a country dance or a football game."

"Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulations upon anyone's achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment."

"Never trust a man unless you've got his pecker in your pocket."

"No member of our generation who wasn't a Communist or a dropout in the thirties is worth a damn."

"Of those to whom much is given, much is asked. I cannot say and no man could say that no more will be asked of us."

"On January 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set forth to Congress and the people 'four essential human freedoms' for which America stands. In the years since then, those four freedoms - freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear - have stood as a summary of our aspirations for the American Republic and for the world. And Americans have always stood ready to pay the cost in energy and treasure which are needed to make those goals a reality. Today - wealthier, more powerful and more able than ever before in our history - our Nation can declare another essential freedom. The fifth freedom is freedom from ignorance. It means that every man, everywhere, should be free to develop his talents to their full potential - unhampered by arbitrary barriers of race or birth or income. We have already begun the work of guaranteeing that fifth freedom. The job, of course, will never be finished. For a nation, as for an individual, education is a perpetually unfinished journey, a continuing process of discovery. But the work we started when this Nation began, which has flourished for nearly two centuries, and which has gained momentum in the past two Congresses - is ours to continue - yours and mine."

"Once we considered education a public expense; we know now that it is a public investment."

"One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President."

"Only two things are necessary to keep one's wife happy. One is to let her think she is having her own way, and the other, to let her have it."

"Organized crime constitutes nothing less than a guerilla war against society."

"Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man."

"Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man. Because all Americans just must have the right to vote. And we are going to give them that right. All Americans must have the privileges of citizenship regardless of race. And they are going to have those privileges of citizenship regardless of race."

"Our most tragic error may have been our inability to establish a rapport and a confidence with the press and television with the communication media. I don't think the press has understood me."

"Our numbers have increased in Vietnam because the aggression of others has increased in Vietnam. There is not, and there will not be, a mindless escalation."

"Our purpose in Vietnam is to prevent the success of aggression. It is not conquest, it is not empire, it is not foreign bases, it is not domination. It is, simply put, just to prevent the forceful conquest of South Vietnam by North Vietnam."

"Our purpose is not--and shall never be-either the quest for power or the desire to punish. We seek to increase the power of the people over all their governments, not to enhance the power of the Federal Government over any of the people. For the life of this Republic, our people have zealously guarded their liberty against abuses of power by their governments. The one weapon they have used is the mightiest weapon in the arsenal of democracy--the vote. This has been enough, for as Woodrow Wilson said, "The instrument of all reform in America is the ballot.""

"Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life."

"Our third goal is to improve the quality of American life. We begin with learning. Every child must have the best education our Nation can provide. Thomas Jefferson said no nation can be both ignorant and free. Today no nation can be both ignorant and great. In addition to our existing programs, I will recommend a new program for schools and students with a first-year authorization of $1,500 million. It will help at every state along the road to learning. For the pre-school years we will help needy children become aware of the excitement of learning. For the primary and secondary school years, we will aid public schools serving low-income families and assist students in both public and private schools. For the college years we will provide scholarships to high school students of the greatest promise and greatest need and guarantee low-interest loans to students continuing their college studies. New laboratories and centers will help our schools lift their standards of excellence and explore new methods of teaching. These centers will provide special training for those who need and deserve special treatment."

"Presidents and Congresses, laws and lawsuits can open the doors to the polling places and open the doors to the wondrous rewards which await the wise use of the ballot. But only the individual Negro, and all others who have been denied the right to vote, can really walk through those doors, and can use that right, and can transform the vote into an instrument of justice and fulfillment."

"Presidents quickly realize that while a single act might destroy the world they live in, no one single decision can make life suddenly better or can turn history around for the good."

"So, I would appeal to my fellow Americans by saying, the only real road to progress for free people is through the process of law and that is the road that America will travel."

"Son, in politics you've got to learn that overnight chicken shit can turn to chicken salad."

"Success only feeds the appetite of aggression."

"That bitch of a war killed the lady I really loved -- the Great Society."

"That?s what happens when you play football too long without a helmet. [referring to Gerald Ford]"

"The American city should be a collection of communities where every member has a right to belong. It should be a place where every man feels safe on his streets and in the house of his friends."

"The atomic bomb certainly is the most powerful of all weapons, but it is conclusively powerful and effective only in the hands of the nation which controls the sky."

"The challenge now presented is more than a challenge to our Constitution--it is a blatant affront to the conscience of this generation of Americans. Discrimination based on race or color is reprehensible and intolerable to the great American majority. In every national forum, where they have chosen to test popular sentiment, defenders of discrimination have met resounding rejection. Americans now are not willing that the acid of the few shall be allowed to corrode the souls of the many."

"The CIA is made up of boys whose families sent them to Princeton but wouldn't let them into the family brokerage business."

"The Constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color. We have all sworn an oath before God to support and to defend that Constitution. We must now act in obedience to that oath. There is no constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong-deadly wrong--to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of States fights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights."

"The essence of our American tradition of State and local governments is the belief expressed by Thomas Jefferson that Government is best which is closest to the people. Yet that belief is betrayed by those State and local officials who engage in denying the right of citizens to vote. Their actions serve only to assure that their State governments and local governments shall be remote from the people, least representative of the people's will and least responsive to the people's wishes."

"The exercise of power in this century has meant for all of us in the United States not arrogance, but agony."

"The experts spent a great deal of time and study working out a formula which would be fair to every State and fair to every county and fair to every child, and would put the education dollar where that dollar is needed most, now. We decided that our first job was to help the schools serving the children from the very lowest income groups. Those families constitute the number one burden, the number one burden in this Nation on the school systems. We know that they cannot bear their share of the taxes to help pay for their education. And unless those children get a good education we know that they become dropouts and they become delinquents and they become taxeaters instead of taxpayers. We know that they will join the unemployed. That is why we put top priority on breaking the vicious cycle that today threatens the future of 5 million children in this great land of opportunity which we talk about so much."

"The fact that a man is a newspaper reporter is evidence of some flaw of character."

"The future holds little hope for any government where the present holds no hope for the people."

"The hungry world cannot be fed until and unless the growth of its resources and the growth of its population come into balance. Each man and woman-and each nation --must make decisions of conscience and policy in the face of this great problem."

"The issue presented by the present challenge to our Constitution and our conscience transcends legalism, although it does not transcend the law itself. We are challenged to demonstrate that there are no sanctuaries within our law for those who flaunt it. We are challenged, also, to demonstrate by our prompt, fitting and adequate response now that the hope of our system is not force, not arms, not the might of militia or marshals-but the law itself."

"The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources--because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples."

"The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President."

"The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America."

"The moon and other celestial bodies should be free for exploration and use by all countries. No country should be permitted to advance a claim of sovereignty."

"The Negro says, "Now." Others say, "Never." The voice of responsible Americans says, "Together." There is no other way."

"The poor suffer twice at the rioter's hands. First, his destructive fury scars their neighborhood; second, the atmosphere of accommodation and consent is changed to one of hostility and resentment."