Quotes from Hubert H. Humphrey

The measure of a civilization is how it treats those at the dawn of life, the margins of life and the twilight of life.

In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.

Life's unfairness is not irrevocable; we can help balance the scales for others, if not always for ourselves.

Each child is an adventure into a better life - an opportunity to change the old pattern and make it new.

I have seen in the Halls of Congress more idealism, more humanness, more compassion, more profiles of courage than in any other institution that I have ever known.

Propaganda, to be effective, must be believed. To be believed, it must be credible. To be credible, it must be true.

It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.

American public opinion is like an ocean, it cannot be stirred by a teaspoon.

There is in every American, I think, something of the old Daniel Boone - who, when he could see the smoke from another chimney, felt himself too crowded and moved further out into the wilderness.

Anyone who thinks that the vice-president can take a position independent of the president of his administration simply has no knowledge of politics or government. You are his choice in a political marriage, and he expects your absolute loyalty.

The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadows of states rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights

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.

In life it isn't what you've lost, it's what you've got left that counts

To err is human. To blame someone else is politics.

In this time of national crises...per haps we would do well to spend a few minutes in considering projects which grace and embellish the earth, instead of shaking it.

There are incalculable resources in the human spirit, once it has been set free.

Today we know that World War II began not in 1939 or 1941 but in the 1920's and 1930's when those who should have known better persuaded themselves that they were not their brother's keeper.

The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.

There are those who say to you - we are rushing this issue of civil rights. I say we are 172 years late.

Asia is rich in people, rich in culture and rich in resources. It is also rich in trouble.

We live by hope. We do not ever get all we want when we want it. But we have to believe that someday, somehow, some way, it will be better and that we can make it so.

Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts-it's what you do with what you have left.

Just be what you are and speak from your guts and heart-it's all a man has.

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.