1900-1965, American Lawyer, Politician
A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Society]
A hungry man is not a free man.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Freedom]
A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Politicians and Politics]
A wise man who stands firm is a statesman, a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Firmness]
Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Accuracy]
All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Progress]
An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Editing and Editors]
Change is inevitable. Change for the better is a full-time job.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Change]
Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Communism and Socialism]
Every age needs men who will redeem the time by living with a vision of the things that are to be.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Vision]
Flattery is all right if you don't inhale.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Flattery]
Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car and another television set.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Freedom]
Golf is a fine relief from the tensions of office, but we are a little tired of holding the bag.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Golf]
I sometimes marvel at the extraordinary docility with which Americans submit to speeches.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Speakers and Speaking]
I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Slander]
I would rather be guilty of talking over a person's head than behind his back.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Speakers and Speaking]
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 E. Stevenson – [Elections]
In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [President]
It is always easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Principles]
It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts!
Adlai E. Stevenson – [Life and Living]