Top 100 Hubert H. Humphrey Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “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

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

— Hubert H. Humphrey

53. “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

54. “There are those who say to you – we are rushing this issue of civil rights. I say we are 172 years late.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

55. “There is a lot of difference between failure and defeat. Failure is when you are defeated and neither learn nor contribute anything.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

56. “For the first time in the history of mankind, one generation literally has the power to destroy the past, the present and the future, the power to bring time to an end.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

57. “We cannot use a double standard for measuring our own and other people’s policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantees of those practiced in our own country.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

58. “Before people will do anything, they have got to eat. And if you are really looking for a way for people to lean on you and to be dependent on you, in terms of their cooperation with you, it seems to me that food dependence would be terrific.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

59. “The ugliness of bigotry stands in direct contradiction to the very meaning of America.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

60. “The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

61. “The difference between hearsay and prophecy is often one of sequence. Hearsay often turns out to have been prophecy.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

62. “Never answer a question from a farmer.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

63. “Leadership in today’s world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

64. “There can be no compromise on the right of personal security; there can be no compromise on securing of human rights.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

65. “Peace of mind is another way of saying that you’ve learned how to love, that you have come to appreciate the importance of giving love in order to be worthy of receiving it.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

66. “The Senate is a place filled with goodwill and good intentions, and if the road to hell is paved with them, then it’s a pretty good detour.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

67. “I wish to suggest that ample opportunity does exist for dissent, for protest, and for nonconformity. But I must also say that the right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

68. “I believe that each of us can make a difference. That what is wrong can be made right. That people possess the basic wisdom and goodness to govern themselves without conflict.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

69. “If there is dissatisfaction with the status quo, good. If there is ferment, so much the better. If there is restlessness, I am pleased. Then let there be ideas, and hard thought, and hard work. If man feels small, let man make himself bigger.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

70. “Liberalism, above all, means emancipation – emancipation from one’s fears, his inadequacies, from prejudice, from discrimination, from poverty.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

71. “And it is to these rights – the right of law and order, the right of life, the right of liberty, the right of a job, the right of a home in a decent neighborhood, and the right to an education – it is to these rights that I pledge my life and whatever capacity and ability I have.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

72. “I learned more about the economy from one South Dakota dust storm that I did in all my years of college.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

73. “Profit and morality are a hard combination to beat.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

74. “It is not enough to merely defend democracy. To defend it may be to lose it; to extend it is to strengthen it. Democracy is not property; it is an idea.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

75. “Here we are the way politics ought to be in America; the politics of happiness, the politics of purpose and the politics of joy.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

76. “Propaganda, to be effective, must be believed. To be believed, it must be credible. To be credible, it must be true.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

77. “We will be remembered not for the power of our weapons but for the power of our compassion, our dedication to human welfare.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

78. “The essence of statesmanship is not a rigid adherence to the past, but a prudent and probing concern for the future.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

79. “If today there is a proper American “sphere of influence” it is this fragile sphere called earth upon which all men live and share a common fate – a sphere where our influence must be for peace and justice.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

80. “What do we want for people? Human dignity, personal expression and fulfillment, justice, freedom.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

81. “Slumism is the pent-up anger of people living on the outside of affluence. Slumism is decay of structure and deterioration of the human spirit. Slumism is a virus which spreads through the body politic. As other “isms,” it breeds disorder and demagoguery and hate.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

82. “The President is the peoples lobbyist.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

83. “We will have to decide today whether we will design the future or resign ourselves to it.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

84. “I am not here to judge whether people are locked in poverty because of themselves or because of the society in which they live. All I know is that they are there and we are trying to do something about it.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

85. “History teaches us that the great revolutions aren’t started by people who are utterly down and out, without hope and vision. They take place when people begin to live a little better – and when they see how much yet remains to be achieved.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

86. “National isolation breeds national neurosis.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

87. “Anyone who thinks that the vice-president can take a position independent of the president of his administration simply has no knowledge of politics or government. You are his choice in a political marriage, and he expects your absolute loyalty.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

88. “This is the first generation in all of recorded history that can do something about the scourge of poverty. We have the means to do it. We can banish hunger from the face of the earth.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

89. “I’ve never thought my speeches were too long; I’ve rather enjoyed them.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

90. “There are incalculable resources in the human spirit, once it has been set free.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

91. “None of us would trade freedom of expression for the narrowness of the public censor. America is a free market for people who have something to say, and need not fear to say it.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

92. “Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

93. “What you do, what each of us does, has an effect on the country, the state, the nation, and the world.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

94. “I had no money to buy books, so between classes and work, I haunted the library. I even tutored in French with a sliding scale of payment: twenty dollars for an A, fifteen for a B, ten for a C, five for a D.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

95. “It is better to gain a foot than to stand still, even when you seek to gain a mile.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

96. “I am absolutely disgusted that anyone would put thousands of America’s boys at risk just to win a Political Campaign.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

97. “I do not feel that we should allow a shortage of funds to prevent cities from financing needed projects.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

98. “I have seen in the Halls of Congress more idealism, more humanness, more compassion, more profiles of courage than in any other institution that I have ever known.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

99. “We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey

100. “The pursuit of peace resembles the building of a great cathedral. It is the work of a generation. In concept it requires a mater-architect; in execution, the labors of many.”

— Hubert H. Humphrey