WIST Quotations

Roosevelt, Eleanor -- Column (1940-07-01), “My Day”

Dave — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 18:52:31 +0000

I do not know Mr. Willkie, but the headline in one of the metropolitan papers yesterday said: “Willkie Aims At Unity, Defense and Recovery.” I’m discouraged. In Heaven’s name, will anyone aim at anything else?
Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1940-07-01), “My Day”
(Source)

Rogers, Will -- Column (1928-11-04), “Daily Telegram”

Dave — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 17:10:07 +0000

Hoover would like to live in the White House. Smith is not adverse to living in the White House. In order to get in there either one will promise the voters anything from perpetual motion to eternal salvation.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1928-11-04), “Daily Telegram”
(Source)

Referring to the 1928 Republican and Democratic presidential nominees Herbert Hoover and Al Smith. Also included in The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949) [ed. Donald Day].

Variant:

Fellows would like to live in the White House, and in order to get there they will promise the voters anything from perpetual motion to eternal salvation.

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1952-09-29), “Fireside Chat” (radio and television broadcast)

Dave — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 20:35:18 +0000

You may seek comfort at the feet of false leaders, who like medicine doctors beat drums to ward off evil spirits. You may listen to false leaders who tell you that there is an easy way — that all you have to do is to elect them and thereafter relax in a tax-free paradise, the political equivalent of sending 10¢ to cover the cost of postage. You may, fearing to face the facts squarely, be distracted by phony issues that have no bearing upon the life-or-death controversy of our time. But deluded you run the risk of being beguiled to destruction, for there is no easy way.

Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-09-29), “Fireside Chat” (radio and television broadcast)

Reported in the Washington Evening Star (1952-09-30). Also reported in TIME Magazine, "National Affairs: Stevenson on Communism" (1952-10-13).

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1952-09-29), “Fireside Chat” (radio and television broadcast)

Dave — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 17:10:18 +0000

A campaign addressed not to men’s minds and to their best instincts, but to their passions, emotions and prejudices, is unworthy at best — now, with the fate of the nation at stake, it is unbearable.

Rogers, Will -- Column (1924-08-03), “Weekly Article: Random Shots at the News of a Week” [No. 86]

Dave — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 16:45:45 +0000

If you have a radio, the next three months is a good time to have it get out of fix. All you will hear from now until the 4th of November will be: “We must get our government out of the hands of predatory wealth.” “The good people of this great country are burdened to death with taxes; now what I intend to do is ….”
What he intends to do is try and get elected. That’s all any of them intend to do.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1924-08-03), “Weekly Article: Random Shots at the News of a Week” [No. 86]
(Source)

Ivins, Molly -- Essay (1998-01), “Introduction,” You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You (1998)

Dave — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 18:13:15 +0000

Our political system has been thoroughly corrupted, and by the usual suspect — money, what else? The corruption is open, obscene, and unmistakable. The way campaigns are financed is a system of legalized bribery. We have a government of special interests, by special interests, and for special interests. And that will not change until we change the way campaigns are financed.

Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1998-01), “Introduction,” You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You (1998)
(Source)

Schlesinger, Arthur -- The Age of Roosevelt, ch. 33, sec. 8 (1960)

Dave — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 19:57:02 +0000

Political campaigns tend to be exercises in progressive degeneration. The steady increase, week after week, in excitement and strain and weariness produces an oversimplification of issues, an over dramatization of alternatives, a growing susceptibility to extreme and catastrophic statements. Candidates find themselves shouting things in the fall that they would never dream of whispering in the summer.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007) American historian, author, social critic
The Age of Roosevelt, ch. 33, sec. 8 (1960)
(Source)

Quay, Matthew -- (Attributed, 1886)

Dave — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 15:59:27 +0000

If you have a weak candidate and a weak platform, wrap yourself up in the American flag and talk about the Constitution.

Matthew Stanley Quay (1833-1904) American political boss, politician, US Senator
(Attributed, 1886)

Huxley, Aldous -- Brave New World Revisited (1958)

Dave — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 13:37:44 +0000

The methods now being used to merchandise the political candidate as though he were a deodorant positively guarantee the electorate against ever hearing the truth about anything.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Brave New World Revisited (1958)

Gregory, Dick -- Dick Gregory’s Political Primer (1972)

Dave — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 15:05:21 +0000

There are two major kinds of promises in politics: the promises made by candidates to the voters and the promises made by the candidates to persons and groups able to deliver the vote. Promises falling into the latter category are loosely called “patronage,” and promises falling into the former category are most frequently called “lies.”

Richard Claxton "Dick" Gregory (1932-2017) American activist, social critic, writer, comedian
Dick Gregory’s Political Primer (1972)

Ameringer, Oscar -- The American Guardian

Dave — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 17:26:41 +0000

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.

Oscar Ameringer (1870-1943) German-American political activist, Socialist organizer, author, politican
The American Guardian

Kennedy, John F. -- Speech (1960-07-15), “The New Frontier, Nomination Acceptance Speech, Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles

Dave — Mon, 19 May 2014 13:57:28 +0000

But I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high — to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Speech (1960-07-15), “The New Frontier, Nomination Acceptance Speech, Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles

Kennedy, John F. -- Profiles in Courage, Introduction (1956)

Dave — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 13:52:37 +0000

Today the challenge of political courage looms larger than ever before. … Our political life is becoming so expensive, so mechanized and so dominated by professional politicians and public relations men that the idealist who dreams of independent statesmanship is rudely awakened by the necessities of election and accomplishment.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Profiles in Courage, Introduction (1956)

Ford, Gerald R. -- Speech, Profiles in Courage Award Acceptance, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library (2001)

Dave — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 15:38:15 +0000

If there is distrust out there — and there is — perhaps it is because there is so much partisan jockeying for advantage at the expense of public policy. At times it feels as if American politics consists largely of candidates without ideas, hiring consultants without convictions, to stage campaigns without content. Increasingly the result is elections without voters.

Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006) American politician, US President (1974-77) [b. Leslie Lynch King, Jr.]
Speech, Profiles in Courage Award Acceptance, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library (2001)
(Source)

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1952-11-03), “The Good Fight,” Radio and TV Broadcast, Chicago

Dave — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:30:36 +0000

I have said what I meant and meant what I said. I have not done as well as I should like to have done, but I have done my best, frankly and forthrightly; no man can do more, and you are entitled to no less.

Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-11-03), “The Good Fight,” Radio and TV Broadcast, Chicago
(Source)

Broadcast the night before the election.

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1956-06-02), Fresno, California

Dave — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:00:15 +0000

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 (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1956-06-02), Fresno, California
(Source)

I cannot find a contemporary, primary report of this quotation. This the text as quoted in Herbert Joseph Muller, Adlai Stevenson : A Study in Values , ch. 8 (epigraph) (1967). It was also so quoted in memorium to Stevenson in Life Magazine (1965-07-23), citing it to 1956-06.

The speech was made in the lead-up to the California presidential primary (1956-06-05), when Stevenson was running against Estes Kefauver. The date for this speech is not confirmed, but extrapolated by the search hit of its text on the 1956-06-03 issue of the Santa Barbara News-Press (contents locked).

Some sources cite the quote as being from 1956-10-11; while it is possible Stevenson repeated the line at a later speech (in Fresno), he infamously disliked using set campaign text.

A variant of the quote is also given in The Atlanta Constitution (1956-06-19), in a Roscoe Drummond syndicated column (which can be found in other contemporary newspapers):

Now I'm old and seasoned and the lesson I have learned is that the hardest thing about such a campaign is how to win without proving unworthy of winning.

Rogers, Will -- Column (1931-06-28), “Daily Telegram: The First Good News of the 1932 Campaign! Mr. Rogers Says He Will Not Run for Anything”

Dave — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:57:47 +0000

Politics has got so expensive it takes lots of money to even get beat with nowadays.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1931-06-28), “Daily Telegram: The First Good News of the 1932 Campaign! Mr. Rogers Says He Will Not Run for Anything”
(Source)

Written in Santa Monica, California.