Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his question. I am sort of a history buff, and so I have spent a little time trying to find out what this country is all about. I also recall a great writer, George Santayana, once writing that if we fail to learn the lessons of our history, we are bound to repeat them. I believe that history should be instructive, and I think that that is what de Tocqueville was talking about in his writings. He really came to this country, from France, to study our penal system on that particular occasion, but he was enamored with this country because of its people. Now, the interesting thing about this, remember, the early 1800s when he came here, slavery was the law of the land, and he wrote about how contradictory that was to what he found in people's hearts, the goodness that he found in people. So irrespective of what the challenges may be of the various institutions that we may have, the various legal issues that may come before us, the various legislative accomplishments we might make, irrespective of all that, there is a certain goodness in Americans that ought to be on demonstration at all times.…”