59+ Adlai Stevenson Quotes On Education, Democracy And Government

Adlai Stevenson was an American politician and diplomat from Illinois. He served as the 23rd Vice President of the United States from 1893 to 1897 and was the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in both the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections. He was known for his intellectualism and eloquent public speaking, earning him the nickname "The Silver-Tongued Orator." Following is our collection on famous quotes by Adlai Stevenson on education, democracy, government.

Top 10 Adlai Stevenson Quotes

1. It is always easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
2. My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
3. Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.
4. A hungry man is not a free man.
5. Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice.
6. Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans.
7. The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal -- that you can gather votes like box tops -- is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.
8. Some people approach every problem with an open mouth.
9. On this shrunken globe, men can no longer live as strangers.
10. Laws are never as effective as habits.

Adlai Stevenson Image Quotes

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. — Adlai Stevenson

Adlai Stevenson Short Quotes

• The human race has improved everything, but the human race.
• Nothing so dates a man as to decry the younger generation.
• She would rather light candles than curse the darkness and her glow has warmed the world.
• We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present.
• I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.
• A wise man who stands firm is a statesman, a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe.
• Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.
• All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.
• In America any boy may become President, and I suppose it's just one of the risks he takes.
• Change is inevitable. Change for the better is a full-time job.

Adlai Stevenson Quotes About Free

We have confused the free with the free and easy. — Adlai Stevenson

The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. — Adlai Stevenson

A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. — Adlai Stevenson

If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain. — Adlai Stevenson

Adlai Stevenson Quotes About Politics

Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse. — Adlai Stevenson

I'm not an old, experienced hand at politics. But I am now seasoned enough to have learned that the hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. — Adlai Stevenson

A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth. — Adlai Stevenson

It is an ancient political vehicle, held together by soft soap and hunger and with front-seat drivers and back-seat drivers contradicting each other in a bedlam of voices, shouting — Adlai Stevenson

We mean by politics the people's business -- the most important business there is. — Adlai Stevenson

Adlai Stevenson Quotes About Speeches

The relationship of the toastmaster to the speaker should be the same as that of the fan to the fan dancer. It should call attention to the subject without making any particular effort to cover it. — Adlai Stevenson

I would rather be guilty of talking over a person's head than behind his back. — Adlai Stevenson

I sometimes marvel at the extraordinary docility with which Americans submit to speeches. — Adlai Stevenson

The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions. — Adlai Stevenson

Adlai Stevenson Famous Quotes And Sayings

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. — Adlai Stevenson

In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take. — Adlai Stevenson

What a man knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty is for the most part incommunicable. — Adlai Stevenson

Power corrupts, but lack of power corrupts absolutely. — Adlai Stevenson

Every age needs men who will redeem the time by living with a vision of the things that are to be. — Adlai Stevenson

Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. — Adlai Stevenson

Flattery is all right if you don't inhale. — Adlai Stevenson

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the White House. — Adlai Stevenson

Peace is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age. — Adlai Stevenson

Under the wide and starry sky, — Adlai Stevenson

The Republicans stroke platitudes until they purr like epigrams. — Adlai Stevenson

I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. — Adlai Stevenson

It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts! — Adlai Stevenson

Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction. — Adlai Stevenson

I believe that if we really want human brotherhood to spread and increase until it makes life safe and sane, we must also be certain that there is no one true faith or path by which it may spread. But it is not easy to banish the notion that there can be universal brotherhood just as soon as everybody gives up his faith and accepts ours. That day may never come, for the richness of human diversity cannot be abolished any more than Mars or Jupiter. Difference is the nature of life, it is part of our moral Universe. Without difference, life would become lifeless. — Adlai Stevenson

To me, there is something superbly symbolic in the fact that an astronaut, sent up as assistant to a series of computers, found that he worked more accurately and more intelligently than they. Inside the capsule, man is still in charge. — Adlai Stevenson

With the supermarket as our temple and the singing commercial as our litany, are we likely to fire the world with an irresistible vision of America's exalted purpose and inspiring way of life? — Adlai Stevenson

We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil; all committed for our safety to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and, I will say, the love we give our fragile craft. — Adlai Stevenson

The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal that you can gather votes like box tops is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. — Adlai Stevenson

We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on it's vulnerable reserves of air and soil, all committed, for our safety, to it's security and peace. Preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and the love we give our fragile craft. — Adlai Stevenson

The whole basis of the United Nations is the right of all nations--great or small--to have weight, to have a vote, to be attended to, to be a part of the twentieth century. — Adlai Stevenson

Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car and another television set. — Adlai Stevenson

We talk a great deal about patriotism. What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility which will enable America to remain master of her power — Adlai Stevenson

I asked him on whom or what he had based his oratorical style. Churchill replied, It was an American statesman who inspired me and taught me how to use every note of the human voice like an organ. Winston then to my amazement started to quote long excerpts from Bourke Cockran's speeches of 60 years before. He was my model, Churchill said. I learned from him how to hold thousands in thrall. — Adlai Stevenson

What do I believe? As an American I believe in generosity, in liberty, in the rights of man. These are social and political faiths that are part of me, as they are, I suppose, part of all of us. Such beliefs are easy to express. But part of me too is my relation to all life, my religion. And this is not so easy to talk about. Religious experience is highly intimate and, for me, ready words are not at hand. — Adlai Stevenson

The New Dealers have all left Washington to make way for the car dealers. — Adlai Stevenson

We cannot be any stronger in our foreign policy for all the bombs and guns we may heap up in our arsenals than we are in the spirit which rules inside the country. Foreign policy, like a river, cannot rise above its source. — Adlai Stevenson

Life Lessons by Adlai Stevenson

1. Adlai Stevenson taught us that it is important to be humble and to always strive to do the right thing, no matter the cost.
2. He also showed us the importance of taking responsibility for our actions, and of being honest and open in our dealings with others.
3. Finally, he demonstrated that it is possible to make a difference in the world, even if it is in small ways.