Top 20 Quotes & Sayings by Everett Dirksen

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American politician Everett Dirksen.

Last updated on September 20, 2024.

Everett McKinley Dirksen was an American politician. A Republican, he represented Illinois in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. As Senate Minority Leader from 1959 until his death in 1969, he played a highly visible and key role in the politics of the 1960s. He helped write and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, both landmark pieces of legislation during the civil rights movement. He was also one of the Senate's strongest supporters of the Vietnam War. A talented orator with a florid style and a notably rich baritone voice, he delivered flamboyant speeches that caused his detractors to refer to him as "The Wizard of Ooze".

American - Politician | January 4, 1896 - September 7, 1969

Source: Wikipedia

I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.

Everett Dirksen

But the basic difficulty still remains: It is the expansion of Federal power, about which I wish to express my alarm. How easily we embrace such business.

Everett Dirksen

I have said, with respect to authorization bills, that I do not want the Congress or the country to commit fiscal suicide on the installment plan.

Everett Dirksen

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.

Everett Dirksen

When a member of the House moves over to the Senate, he raises the IQ of both bodies.

Everett Dirksen

We have been through this is biennial convulsion four or five different times over the past 10 or 12 years, and now it appears that we are going through this quiet agony all over again.

Everett Dirksen

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.

Everett Dirksen

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.

Everett Dirksen

There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come.

Everett Dirksen

The mind is no match with the heart in persuasion; constitutionality is no match with compassion.

Everett Dirksen

We are becoming so accustomed to millions and billions of dollars that 'thousands' has almost passed out of the dictionary.

Everett Dirksen

The oil can is mightier than the sword.

Everett Dirksen

I am a man of principle, and one of my basic principles is flexibility.

Everett Dirksen

Dirksen's Three Laws of Politics: 1. Get elected. 2. Get re-elected. 3. Don't get mad, get even.

Everett Dirksen

The U.S. Senate - an old scow which doesn't move very fast, but never sinks.

Everett Dirksen

Stronger than all the armies is an idea thats time has come. ... The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing in government, in education, and in employment. It will not be stayed or denied. It is here!

Everett Dirksen

We have been through this biennial convulsion four or five different times over the past 10 or 12 years, and now it appears that we are going through this quiet agony all over again.

Everett Dirksen

Life is not a static thing. The only people who do not change their minds are incompetents in asylums, and those in cemeteries.

Everett Dirksen

When I feel the heat, I see the light.

Everett Dirksen

Whatever the color of a man's skin, we are all mankind. So every denial of freedom, of equal opportunity for a livelihood, or for an education, diminishes me.

Everett Dirksen

Top 20 Quotes & Sayings by Everett Dirksen

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