Adlai Stevenson

His quotations, whether in private conversation, or in public speech, were always timely.

He was the inveterate hater of shams of all kinds, and of mere pretenders of every description.

His heroes, like those of Dickens, were taken from the common walk; the men he had met in the road and at the hustings, at whose firesides he had passed many hours.

In common ways, with common men, I served my race and time.

What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted.

There's not a string attuned to mirth But has its chord in melancholy.

I am a politician, and a candidate for re-election to Congress; my district is about equally divided; Hamlet has his friends down there, and Macbeth his, and I am unwilling to take any part between them!

In the first place, that exalted position would never be filled by one who, for lack of serious argument, constantly appeals to the risibilities of his audience; never by a wit, a mere joker, a story-teller; in other words--if you will…

I have been accused of being a defaulter; I have been accused of being a drunkard; I have been accused of being a gambler; but, thank God, fellow-citizens, no man has ever dared to assail my good moral character!

Oh, it is excellent To have a giant strength; but 't is tyrannous To use it like a giant.

The incumbent of this great office holds with unchallenged title the most exalted station known to men.

The spirit of the mob is in deadly antagonism to all constituted authority.