All Posts Tagged With: "quotes"

Bear with me people…I’m an engineer, not an artist.

“People don’t want to go to war…. But, after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a parliament or a communist dictatorship…. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country.”

Actually, this quote is from Hermann Göering during his trial at Nuremberg. It is eerily chilling how fully his words apply to the Bush/McCain crusade to war.

This evening I’m flipping through pages of former Majority Leader Bob Dole’s book “Great Political Wit: Laughing (Almost) All the Way to the White House.” I’m a big fan of quotation books, particularly those with a healthy share of Churchill wit. Dole’s book is a light read, and an amusing collection. Each chapter begins with a story or reflection from Leader Dole and continues with a well thought out list of political quotes. Most of these will already be known to a serious fan of political history, but all in all, this is a solid little collection.

One quote that struck me in particular, probably due in part to Brenda Kay’s great column on teaching the Bible still going through my head, was a quote by a former U.S. Senate chaplain:

When Edward Everett Hale served as chaplain of the Senate, he was asked, “Do you pray for the Senators, Dr. Hale?”

“No,” he said. “I look at the Senators and pray for the country.”

LBJ is becoming my favorite President a little more every day. Kennedy may have sold us on progressive reform, but Johnson did the heavy lifting. I also miss White House wit. LBJ was hillarious, whether or not he meant to be. I’d like to urge the wikischolars among you to give President Johnson’s memory at least a few minutes worth of research. I was reading a collection of Johnson quotes this morning, and I wanted to share a few with the rest of you:

On Women:
I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. First, let her think she’s having her own way. And second, let her have it.

I want to make a policy statement. I am unabashedly in favor of women.

On Loyalty:
I don’t want loyalty. I want loyalty. I want him to kiss my ass in Macy’s window at high noon and tell me it smell like roses. I want his pecker in my pocket. (on hiring a potential assistant)

LBJ’s Political Wisdom:
While you’re saving your face, you’re losing your ass.

You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: “President Can’t Swim.”

Jack was out kissing babies while I was out passing bills. Someone had to tend the store.

Jerry Ford is so dumb that he can’t fart and chew gum at the same time.

Why Brenda should love LBJ:
The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

LBJ says Tet is doubly worth a damn:
No member of our generation who wasn’t a Communist or a dropout in the thirties is worth a damn.

On the American Spirit:
For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground.

Jefferson was against any needless official apparel, but if the gown was to carry, he said:

For Heaven’s sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum.

~Thomas Jefferson (commenting on judges’ apparel)