Quotes from George McGovern

Every once in a while, I run into somebody who tells me that she met her husband in my campaign or a husband who says, I met my wife. I have to tell you, I caused a few divorces too.

I firmly believed throughout 1971 that the major hurdle to winning the presidency was winning the Democratic nomination. I believed that any reasonable Democrat would defeat President Nixon. I now think that no one could have defeated him in 1972.

You know, sometimes, when they say you're ahead of your time, it's just a polite way of saying you have a real bad sense of timing.

It would be a good time to replace the drug war with something more constructive. The cure offered the drug war today has probably been more harmful and done more damage than the disease.

You never fully get over [losing a presidential campaign]. But I've had a good life. I've enjoyed myself 90 percent of the time.

The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher plain.

I did frequently refer to my war record in World War II, but not in any flamboyant way.

It's nice not to have to worry about constituents.

I am 1,000 percent for Tom Eagleton and I have no intention of dropping him from the ticket.

I never even had the time to read novels.

I am a liberal and always have been - just not the wild-eyed character the Republicans made me out to be.

My heart does sometimes bleed for those who are hurting in my own country and abroad.

I'm what a normal, healthy, ideal American should be like.

I wish I had known more firsthand about the concerns and problems of American businesspeople while I was a U.S. senator and later a presidential nominee. That knowledge would have made me a better legislator and a more worthy aspirant to the White House.

Empathy is born out of the old biblical injunction 'Love the neighbor as thyself.'

The whole campaign was a tragic case of mistaken identity.

Truth is a habit of integrity, not a strategy of politics.

I make one pledge above all others - to seek and speak the truth with all the resources of mind and spirit I command.

My father was a clergyman and always said: 'Hate the sin but love the sinner.'

I was tired. I hadn't slept eight hours in two, three years. I lived on four, five hours of sleep. You can do it during a campaign because thousands are screaming for you. You're getting adrenaline shots each day. Then the campaign ends, and there are no more shots.

I am fed up with a system which busts the pot smoker and lets the big dope racketeer go free.

I hope I live long enough to see every hungry school child in the world being fed under the so-called McGovern-Dole program.

When I was a youngster growing up in South Dakota, we never referred to the national debt, it was always referred to as the war debt because it stemmed from World War I.

I have a very deep concern about President Obama putting in another 21,000 troops into Afghanistan with the promise of more to come.