A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a practice of tenure in public office.
Hubert H. Humphrey

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

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.
Hubert H. Humphrey

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

Behind every successful man is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law.
Hubert H. Humphrey

Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.
Hubert H. Humphrey

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

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.
Hubert H. Humphrey

Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on.
Hubert H. Humphrey

Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.
Hubert H. Humphrey


Freedom is the most contagious virus known to man.
Hubert H. Humphrey

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.
Hubert H. Humphrey

I learned more about the economy from one South Dakota dust storm that I did in all my years of college.
Hubert H. Humphrey

I learnt more about politics during one South Dakota dust storm than in seven years at the university.
Hubert H. Humphrey

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. If man feels small, let man make himself bigger.
Hubert H. Humphrey

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.
Hubert H. Humphrey

It is not enough to merely defend democracy. To defend it may be to lose it; to extend it is to strengthen it. Democracy is not property; it is an idea.
Hubert H. Humphrey

It is not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left.
Hubert H. Humphrey

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 H. Humphrey

Leadership in today's world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.
Hubert H. Humphrey