Political Quotes

“I should begin by saying that those of us who were born in the late 1960s, we are not only the legatees of what was done here 40 years ago; we are very much the hope of what was done here 40 years ago. It was somehow imagined by the people who sat in this Chamber 40 years ago close to this very day that if they made this change in our laws that they would somehow open up the talent base in this country, that they would somehow build an America that had never been; and the fact that we commend this day shows us the continuing power of law. It is sometimes fashionable to say that you cannot legislate morality in this country, and all of us have said that on our favorite issue or another; but this is the reality: law can be used to shape our moral character; law can be used to set the boundaries of what we will tolerate and what we will not accept and that is exactly what we did 40 years ago. We used the power of law to shape the American dream and to talk about its outer aspirations.”