Great Throughts Treasury

"Truth has a way of asserting itself despite all attempts to obscure it. Distortion only serves to derail it for a time. No matter to what lengths we humans may go to obfuscate facts or delude our fellows, truth has a way of squeezing out through the cracks, eventually."

"And the president is all wrong when he maintains that a nominee should have an up-or-down vote."

"And the only people who'll be with me will be my family."

"And the president is all wrong when he maintains that a nominee should have an up-or-down vote. The Constitution doesn't say that. The Constitution doesn't say that that nominee shall have any vote at all. There doesn't have to even be a vote."

"Congress should be approving a more robust homeland security bill."

"Despite this heritage, the congress has been in too many cases more than willing to walk away from its constitutional powers."

"As one who believes in the death penalty, as one who has seen a public execution ... I certainly do not take a back seat to anyone when it comes to supporting legitimate victims' rights. But I am not for this amendment to the Constitution of the United States."

"Congress is not an ATM. We have to be able to explain this new, enormous bill to the American people."

"Considering the events unfolding in the Gulf States and the heroic efforts still under way to save lives _ efforts that include our own West Virginia National Guard _ this is not the time for political announcements,"

"First, we've got to get over the fact that it's Lanier. We have to play the game, play hard and handle their pressure. We want to try to prevent (high-scoring Bulldogs junior guard R.L.) Horton from getting on a run. Lanier is so balanced and athletic, though, that it's kind of pick your poison with them."

"He never gets rattled. We've been playing in spurts like that all year. In the second half, we started containing the ball better. The Whippets are a well-coached team and they played hard."

"Do not run a campaign that would embarrass your mother."

"He indicated he felt that the people have a right, have a very distinct right, to express their religious views,"

"Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality; he recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal."

"I have been in Congress for more than a half century. I have lived through times of fear and times of hope. Of despair and of achievement. I have seen our government at its best, but today I fear that we see our government at its worst."

"I am very pleased with the court's decision, which I believe to be a great victory for the American people and our Constitution,"

"I apologize for any wrongdoing I or my players did. I thought I was defending my players, but I'm sure that's what Coach Fred Hickman was trying to do too. I'm sorry about all of that."

"I have lived through times of fear and times of hope. Of despair and of achievement."

"I have had the faith of a mustard seed, and I've been able to move mountains, ... And there are other mountains, and I'll be able to move them."

"I have seen our government at its best, but today I fear that we see our government at its worst."

"I have never seen such extreme partisanship, such bitter partisanship, and such forgetfulness of the fate of our fathers and of the Constitution."

"I refuse simply to toe the party line when it comes to Supreme Court justices, and I make up my mind after careful contemplation. ... I am a registered Democrat -- everyone knows that. But when it comes to judges, I hail from a conservative state, and like a majority of my constituents, I prefer conservative judges. I've been saying that for years and years. That is, [I prefer] judges who do not try to make the law."

"I will never submit to fight beneath that banner with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

"I have the best job in America because I represent you, the people of West Virginia. And I want to keep this job,"

"I look at it this way: One of these days I'll be over in a hospital somewhere with four walls around me."

"Is it any wonder, why the approval ratings of the Congress go up every time we go into recess?"

"I want answers - we all want answers - as to why it took so long for rescue teams to get on the ground. There is no excuse for the days of delay and the inexplicable lack of coordination in the response effort... We knew the danger was coming. Yet, the government failed to respond. Lives were lost because the government failed to do its job."

"It is money, money, money! Not ideas, not principles, but money that reigns supreme in American politics."

"I refuse simply to toe the party line when it comes to Supreme Court justices. I hail from a conservative state. And, like a majority of my constituents, I prefer conservative judges."

"It is the Constitution of the United States that has been undermined, undercut, and is under attack. It is the American people's liberties that is in jeopardy. That is why I wrote 'Losing America.'"

"It is the American people's liberties that is in jeopardy."

"It was the separation of powers upon which the framers placed their hopes for the preservation of the people's liberties. Despite this heritage, the congress has been in too many cases more than willing to walk away from its constitutional powers."

"It is time to come home, America. Time to look within our own borders and within our own souls. There are many questions to be answered and many missions to accomplish right here on our own soil."

"It's the last bastion of minority rights, where a minority can be heard, where a minority can stand on its feet, one individual if necessary, and speak until he falls into the dust."

"I've given most of my life to serving the people of West Virginia, and it began here 59 years ago, ... six more years, six more years."

"Mission accomplished? The mission in Iraq, as laid out by President Bush and Vice President Cheney, has failed."

"One's family is the most important thing in life. I look at it this way: One of these days I'll be over in a hospital somewhere with four walls around me. And the only people who'll be with me will be my family."

"Our ideals of freedom, set forth and realized in our Constitution, are our greatest export to the world."

"The Congress and certainly this Senate is not ordinary, and certainly not Lilliputian. We're senators."

"Our recommendations to the president have been followed, in that he is reaching out across the aisle and getting most of the views of the senators on both sides of the aisle."

"The Constitution doesn't say that that nominee shall have any vote at all."

"The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia. It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state in the Union. Will you please inform me as to the possibilities of rebuilding the Klan realm of W. Va."

"That's what the Senate is about. It's the last bastion of minority rights, where a minority can be heard, where a minority can stand on its feet, one individual if necessary, and speak until he falls into the dust."

"The mission in Iraq, as laid out by President Bush and Vice President Cheney, has failed."

"The market for horsemeat is not an American market ... Horsemeat is shipped abroad. The three slaughterhouses in the U.S. are foreign-owned. Thus, American horses are sold to a foreign company, killed for consumption in a foreign market, and foreign-owned companies profit from the export of horsemeat. Many Americans would be shocked to learn that our animals suffer such a fate, all in order to satisfy the tastes of those living in Europe and Asia."

"The money the president wants to borrow for Iraq will come directly out of the American taxpayer wallets in the form of Medicare and Social Security receipts. That's your money."

"The season has come for Americans to look homeward ... instead of continuing to spend billions of dollars in Iraq ,"

"The ongoing strife in Iraq, and the billions of dollars that the President is seeking to continue that war, give me little comfort that this Administration has learned from its mistakes in Iraq."

"The questions continue to grow. The doubts are beginning to drown out the assurances. For every insistence from Washington that the weapons of mass destruction case against Iraq is sound comes a counterpoint from the field -- another dry hole, another dead end."

"There doesn't have to even be a vote."