Great Throughts Treasury

"I have every expectation that the office will reopen by Monday, November 26, 2001,"

"I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals, and to elect Barack Obama president of the United States."

"I hope for an America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make this nation safe for both democracy and diversity."

"I have fallen short in my life, but my faith has always brought me home."

"I hope for an America where neither "fundamentalist" nor "humanist" will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of good will look at life and into their own souls."

"I hope for an America where no president, no public official, no individual will ever be deemed a greater or lesser American because of religious doubt - or religious belief."

"I hope for an America where the power of faith will always burn brightly, but where no modern inquisition of any kind will ever light the fires of fear, coercion, or angry division."

"I was down at the White House this afternoon with some suggestions for the State of the Union address, but all I got from him was, "Are you still using that greasy kid stuff on your hair?""

"I won't yield to anyone about guns in our society. I know enough about it."

"If we set the precedent of limiting the First Amendment, in order to protect the sensibilities of those who are offended by flag burning, what will we say the next time someone is offended by some other minority view, or by some other person's exercise of the freedom the Constitution is supposed to protect?"

"I'm deeply troubled by a narrow and cramped, and perhaps even a mean-spirited view of the law that appears in some of your writings,"

"I'm just trying to find out, on the Voting Rights Act, whether you have any problem at all and trouble at all in terms of the constitutionality of the existing Voting Rights Act that was extended by the Congress."

"I think it's dealing with overall shipping lanes, that's what is at issue."

"I think about my brothers every day,"

"I seek the presidency with no illusions"

"I think the last thing that the Republican Party wants is to go into the election as the pro-tobacco and the anti-health care party, and that's where their leaders are leading them... Face The Nation."

"I think there's enormous potential in terms of solar power and wind power all along the coastal areas and I think we ought to take advantage of it."

"In candor, we must say that the Federal budget can be balanced only by policies that bring us to a balanced prosperity of full employment and price restraint. And to all those overburdened by an unfair tax structure, let us provide new hope for real tax reform. Instead of shutting down classrooms, let us shut off tax shelters. Instead of cutting out school lunches, let us cut off tax subsidies for expensive business lunches that are nothing more than food stamps for the rich."

"In fact, the legal system is in part responsible for their very size and growth. And too often when the individual finds himself in conflict with these forces, the legal system sides with the giant institution, not the small businessman or private citizen."

"In short, I hope for an America where neither "fundamentalist" nor "humanist" will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of good will look at life and into their own souls."

"In the depths of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt inspired the nation when he said, 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,'"

"In the midst of a national disaster of biblical proportions, it is difficult for the American people to participate fully in the selection of the next chief justice, one of the most important positions in our government and the chief protector of our Constitution,"

"It would be unconscionable for Congress to adjourn without providing urgently needed help for those who need fuel assistance this winter."

"It has been seven years since my first election to the Senate. You and I share many memories; some of them have been glorious, some have been very sad. The opportunity to work with you and serve Massachusetts has made my life worthwhile."

"Integrity is the lifeblood of democracy. Deceit is a poison in its veins."

"Individual faults and frailties are no excuse to give in - and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves."

"Indicated that they really didn't have a plan to win the peace after winning the war."

"It's bad enough that such a glaring blunder became part of the president's case for war. It's far worse if the case for war was made by deliberate deception,"

"It's an indictment of the lengths Administration officials were willing to go to cover up their failed intelligence, their distortion on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and their serious blunders on the war,"

"It's better to send in the Peace Corps than the Marine Corps."

"It's not enough to go to the United Nations with a resolution... We must go with the right resolution, and it's not clear that this administration is ready to swallow its pride and do that. Words don't matter. We need deeds."

"It's now clear that from the very moment President Bush took office, Iraq was his highest priority as unfinished business from the first Bush Administration. His agenda was clear: find a rationale to get rid of Saddam."

"Let us pledge that we will never misuse unemployment, high interest rates, and human misery as false weapons against inflation. Let us pledge that employment will be the first priority of our economic policy. Let us pledge that there will be security for all those who are now at work, and let us pledge that there will be jobs for all who are out of work; and we will not compromise on the issue of jobs. These are not simplistic pledges. Simply put, they are the heart of our tradition, and they have been the soul of our Party across the generations. It is the glory and the greatness of our tradition to speak for those who have no voice, to remember those who are forgotten, to respond to the frustrations and fulfill the aspirations of all Americans seeking a better life in a better land."

"It's time that Gerry Adams frees himself from the IRA. We cannot in Western countries have a political party that has its own private army, particularly one that's been associated with criminality and violence,"

"Let this be our commitment: Whatever sacrifices must be made will be shared and shared fairly. And let this be our confidence: At the end of our journey and always before us shines that ideal of liberty and justice for all."

"Love is not an easy feeling to put into words. Nor is loyalty, or trust, or joy. But he was all of these. He loved life completely and he lived it intensely."

"On issue after issue, they have moved brazenly to impose their agenda on America and on the world... They have pursued their goals at the expense of urgent national and human needs and at the expense of the truth. America deserves better."

"On key issues of equal rights, fairness, and access to justice, he has repeatedly found ways to keep people from vindicating their rights, obtaining remedies, and protecting themselves from government invasions of their privacy."

"Many in the scientific community are concerned that the president's decision will delay development of cures for dread disease for many years, at the cost of countless lives and immeasurable suffering,"

"Members have a lot of respect for the kind of diligence and hard work (exhibited by Burr)... It's been a very important service (for Burr) to develop that expertise."

"Make no mistake about it! There is an organized movement against organized labor and it's called the Bush Administration."

"My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, it is so wonderful to be here."

"Natural gas... could cost as much as one and a half times what it did last year, when the current price of heating oil is already 30 percent higher than a year ago."

"My brother [Robert] need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it."

"One question we must consider today is how we can take action to unify our nation, heal racial division, end poverty and give real life meaning to the Constitutional mandate that there be equal protection under law."

"O'Neill has now revealed what many have long suspected... Despite protestations to the contrary, the president and his senior aides began the march to war in Iraq in the earliest days of the administration."

"Our commitment to this founding principle is especially relevant today. Americans are united as rarely before in compassion and generosity for our fellow citizens whose lives have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina... The powerful winds and floodwater of Katrina tore away the mask that has hidden from public view the many Americans who are left out and left behind."

"Our struggle is not with some monarch named George who inherited the crown. Although it often seems that way,"

"Not in my back yard."

"Nominees must earn their confirmation by providing us with full knowledge of the values and convictions they will bring to decisions that may profoundly affect our progress as a nation. Judge Roberts has not done so. His repeated allegiance to the rule of law reveals little about the values he would bring to the job of chief justice of the United States."