We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present. Adlai E. Stevenson More Quotes by Adlai E. Stevenson More Quotes From Adlai E. Stevenson My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. Adlai E. Stevenson patriotic independent freedom In America any boy may become President, and I suppose it's just one of the risks he takes. Adlai E. Stevenson humorous witty funny Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse. Adlai E. Stevenson political evil mind The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. So we must never neglect any work of peace within our reach, however small. Adlai E. Stevenson league journey peace All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions. All change is the result of a change in the contemporary state of mind. Adlai E. Stevenson clever work success Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. Adlai E. Stevenson patriotic wisdom life You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad. Adlai E. Stevenson patience integrity character The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. Adlai E. Stevenson election-process cereal thinking I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. Adlai E. Stevenson friends truth funny The free press is the mother of all our liberties and of our progress under liberty. Adlai E. Stevenson freedom media mother The human race has improved everything, but the human race. Adlai E. Stevenson humans race civilization As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end. Adlai E. Stevenson abiding democracy law When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect. Adlai E. Stevenson patriotic mean country You will find that the truth is often unpopular and the contest between agreeable fancy and disagreeable fact is unequal. For, in the vernacular, we Americans are suckers for good news. Adlai E. Stevenson fancy honesty truth Not to destroy but to construct, Adlai E. Stevenson ignorance war science A hungry man is not a free man. Adlai E. Stevenson freedom compassion men Your days are short here; this is the last of your springs. And now in the serenity and quiet of this lovely place, touch the depths of truth, feel the hem of Heaven. You will go away with old, good friends. And don't forget when you leave why you came. Adlai E. Stevenson friends good-friend spring Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans. Adlai E. Stevenson indifferent survival nature We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil, all committed, for our safety, to its security and peace. Preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and the love we give our fragile craft. Adlai E. Stevenson nature love peace It will be helpful in our mutual objective to allow every man in America to look his neighbor in the face and see a man - not a color. Adlai E. Stevenson objectivity color men