Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for yielding me the time, and for his leadership and his management of this significant piece of legislation. I want to thank Mr. Davis and the other Members on the other side for their tremendous cooperation in trying to help us move to a more perfect Union. Mr. Speaker, 7 years ago, I stood on this floor and I referred to this Chamber, this great Hall, as America's classroom. And it is in that spirit that I think of this building as America's schoolhouse. And what is taught in this building, what is experienced by the people who visit this building ought to be about the uplifting of this great Nation. What people see when they come here, who people see lauded, glorified, and honored when they visit this building ought to be people who are uplifting to history and the human spirit. It is in that light that I recall the writings of one great writer who wrote that if we fail to learn the lessons of history--I think it was George Santiano--we are bound to repeat them. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from history. I study it every day. Hardly a day goes by when I don't spend some time looking at some facet of American history. We did not come to this floor with this legislation to get rid of that history. A lot of it we don't like; a lot of it we do like.…”