Oh, my friend, it’s not what they take away from you that counts. It’s what you do with what you have left.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
(Attributed, 1976)
Comment after cancer surgery to remove his bladder.
Quotations by:
Humphrey, Hubert
We believe that to err is human. To blame it on someone else is politics.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
(Attributed)
What we need are critical lovers of America — patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Beyond Civil Rights: A New Day of Equality (1968)
We are the standard-bearers in the only really authentic revolution, the democratic revolution against tyrannies. Our strength is not to be measured by our military capacity alone, by our industry, or by our technology. We will be remembered, not for the power of our weapons, but for the power of our compassion, our dedication to human welfare.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
The Cause is Mankind (1964)
The vast number of titles which are published each year — all of them are to the good, even if some of them may annoy or even repel us for a time. For none of us would trade freedom of expression and of ideas for the narrowness of the public censor. America is a free market for people who have something to say, and need not fear to say it.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Address, National Book Awards, New York City (8 Mar 1967)
We can’t use a double standard — there’s no room for double standards in American politics — for measuring our own and other people’s policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantee of those practices in our own country.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia (14 Jul 1948)
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.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Remarks, Dedication of the Hubert H. Humphrey Building (1 Nov 1977)
Cited in the Congressional Register, vol. 123, p. 37287 (4 Nov 1977)
This, then, is the test we must set for ourselves; not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Speech, Buffalo (7 Jan 1967)
To those who say — My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late. To those who say — To those who say that this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Speech, Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia (14 Jul 1948)
Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Speech, Democratic State Convention, Little Rock, Arkansas (18 Sep 1964)
The story of the labor movement needs to be taught in every school in this land. … America is a living testimonial to what free men and women, organized in free democratic trade unions can do to make a better life … we ought to be proud of it!
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Speech, Minnesota State AFL-CIO Convention (1977)
I’d hate to be in those [slum] conditions and I’ll tell you if I were in those conditions, you’d have more trouble than you have already because I’ve got enough spark left in me to lead a mighty good revolt.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Speech, National Assoc. of Counties, New Orleans (18 Jul 1966)
The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Speech, National Student Association, University of Wisconsin, Madison (23 Aug 1965)
If there is dissatisfaction with the status quo, good. If there is ferment, so much the better. If there is restlessness, I am pleased. Then let there be ideas, and hard thought, and hard work.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Speech, U. of Chicago (14 Jun 1966)
Here we are the way politics ought to be in America, the politics of happiness, the politics of purpose, and the politics of joy.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Speech, Washington, DC (27 Apr 1968)
There are not enough jails, not enough police, not enough courts to enforce a law not supported by the people.
Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1911-1978) American politician
Speech, Williamsburg, Virginia (1 May 1965)