Everett McKinley Dirksen (January 4, 1896 – September 7, 1969) was an American politician of the Republican Party. He represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives (1933–1949) and U.S. Senate (1951–1969). As Senate Minority Leader for a decade, he played a highly visible and key role in the politics of the 1960s, including helping to write and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Open Housing Act of 1968, both landmarks of civil rights legislation. He was also one of the Senate's strongest supporters of the Vietnam War and was known as "The Wizard of Ooze" for his oratorical style. (Click here for full Wikipedia article)
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During a political campaign everyone is concerned with what a candidate will do on this or that question if he is elected except the candidate; he's too busy wondering what he'll do if he isn't elected.
I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.
I've decided to be a dull, morose bore at these press meetings. It's the only safe course. You give me no choice. I tell a joke and you convert it into an international incident. I coin a whimsical term and you make it appear I am at odds with the President. I indulge in some polite banter and you interpret it as a split in the Party.
Life is not a static thing. The only people who do not change their minds are incompetents in asylums, who can't, and those in cemeteries.
Oh, I never said that. A newspaper fella misquoted me once, and I
thought it sounded so good that I never bothered to deny it.
(regarding
the attributed quote, 'A billion here, a billion there, sooner or later
it adds up to real money.' Others claim he made the statement on The
Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.)
The mind is no match with the heart in persuasion; constitutionality is no match with compassion.
The oil can is mightier than the sword.
When a member of the House moves over to the Senate, he raises the IQ of both bodies.
When all is said and done, the real citadel of strength of any community is in the hearts and minds and desires of those who dwell there.
When I feel the heat, I see the light.
Categories: Everett Dirksen, Quotes of the day
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