Hubert H. Humphrey Quotes

1. “Never give up on anybody.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

Featured in: Giving Up Quotes, Quitting Quotes, Quotes About Giving

2. “The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

3. “Never give in and never give up.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

Featured in: Not Giving Up Quotes

4. “You can’t hoot with the owls and then soar with the eagles.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

5. “More progress results from the violent execution of an imperfect plan than the perfection of a plan to violently execute.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

6. “We live by hope. We do not ever get all we want when we want it. But we have to believe that someday, somehow, some way, it will be better and that we can make it so.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

7. “Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

8. “It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

9. “The good old days were never that good, believe me. The good new days are today, and better days are coming tomorrow. Our greatest songs are still unsung.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

10. “Peace is not passive, it is active. Peace is not appeasement, it is strength. Peace does not ‘happen,’ it requires work.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

11. “The way we treat our children in the dawn of their lives and the way we treat our elderly in the twilight of their lives is a measure of the quality of a nation.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

12. “Life’s unfairness is not irrevocable; we can help balance the scales for others, if not always for ourselves.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

13. “There is a great deal of difference between living and surviving. You can survive in debauchery, even in sickness and despair. But you live with a spirit of vitality and a spirit of participation, of being wanted, and having something to contribute.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

14. “It is not what they take away from you that counts. It’s what you do with what you have left.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

15. “Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

16. “Freedom is the most contagious virus known to man.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

17. “The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

18. “If I believe in something, I will fight for it, with all I have. But I do not demand all or nothing. I would rather get something than nothing.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

19. “Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

20. “Each child is an adventure into a better life – an opportunity to change the old pattern and make it new.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

21. “Behind every successful man is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

22. “What we need are critical lovers of America – patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

23. “To err is human. To blame someone else is politics.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

24. “Unfortunately, our affluent society has also been an effluent society.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

25. “When the dignity of one person is denied, all of us are denied.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

26. “You can always debate about what you should have done. The question is what are you going to do?”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

27. “In the minds and hearts of the American people, there is a great hunger for peace based on a universal recognition of the values of freedom and human dignity.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

28. “The road to freedom, here and everywhere, begins in the classroom.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

29. “My favorite sandwich is peanut butter, baloney, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and mayonnaise on toasted bread with catsup on the side.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

30. “The gap between the rich and the poor is the most dangerous threat to world peace we have.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

31. “Our greatest songs are still unsung.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

32. “The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadows of states rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

33. “Just be what you are and speak from your guts and heart – it’s all a person has.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

34. “We are in danger of making our cities places where business goes on but where life, in its real sense, is lost.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

35. “To be realistic today is to be visionary. To be realistic is to be starry-eyed.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

36. “Much of our American progress has been the product of the individual who had an idea; pursued it; fashioned it; tenaciously clung to it against all odds; and then produced it, sold it, and profited from it.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

37. “It is always a risk to speak to the press: they are likely to report what you say.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

38. “This, then, is the test we must set for ourselves; not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

39. “In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

40. “Until racial justice and freedom is a reality in this land, our union will remain profoundly imperfect.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

41. “The measure of a civilization is how it treats those at the dawn of life, the margins of life and the twilight of life.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

42. “It is all too easy for a society to measure itself against some abstract philosophical principle or political slogan. But in the end, there must remain the question: What kind of life is one society providing to the people that live in it?”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

43. “Surely anyone who has ever been elected to public office understands that one commodity above all others, namely the trust and confidence of the people, is fundamental in maintaining a free and open political system.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

44. “American public opinion is like an ocean, it cannot be stirred by a teaspoon.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

45. “In life it isn’t what you’ve lost, it’s what you’ve got left that counts.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

46. “You cannot tell a poor boy from a small country town on the plains of South Dakota who has had the opportunity to be a teacher, a mayor, a senator, and a vice president, that America is not a nation of promise.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

47. “The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

48. “There is no such thing as an acceptable level of unemployment, because hunger is not acceptable, poverty is not acceptable, poor health is not acceptable, and a ruined life is not acceptable.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

49. “There are not enough jails, not enough police, not enough courts to enforce a law not supported by the people.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

50. “The history of the labor movement needs to be taught in every school in this land. America is a living testimonial to what free men and women, organized in free democratic trade unions can do to make a better life. We ought to be proud of it!”

— Hubert H. Humphrey