William Proxmire Quotes

Mr. James Madison is a character who has long been in public life; and what is very remarkable every Person seems to acknowledge his greatness. He blends together the profound politician, with the Scholar. In the management of every great question he evidently took the lead in the Convention, and tho' he cannot be called an Orator, he is a most agreeable, eloquent, and convincing Speaker. From a spirit of industry and application which he possesses in a most eminent degree, he always comes forward the best informed Man of any point in debate. The affairs of the United States, he perhaps, has the most correct knowledge of, of any Man in the Union.

Lyndon Johnson might have been the greatest vote counter ever in Congress, not because of his math skills but because of his unrivaled ability to read his fellow politicians and his utter ruthlessness in using what he knew.

The “cant” of the politician, like the cant of the “religious” man, is also protean in its guise, but its chief method is to explain away words. The politician can always show you that he didn’t mean what he says, but something rather different from what he says. Political cant consists in pretending to agreement with hearers, whoever they may be. This cant is part of the stock-in-trade of every politician, be he Tory, Whig, or Radical, and it is by its means that he tries to haul in stray votes.

(During a long speech in Parliament by Labour M. P. John Foster, Churchill dropped his head on his chest and closed his eyes. Foster criticized his "Right Honourable Opponent" for being asleep. Churchill shot back:) I wish to God I were! (Another Labour M. P. asked Mr. Churchill if he must fall asleep during his speech. Churchill replied:) No, it is purely voluntary.

He is the most brilliant speaker of the English tongue of all men on this globe

I must remind the right honorable gentleman that a monologue is not a decision.

I am not comfortable with putting out problems without solutions.

Uncle Cornpone

Lyndon Johnson was perhaps the greatest political arm twister in the country’s history.

He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts—for support rather than illumination.

He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary

I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President.

He was born to be a senator. He never said anything important, and he always said it sonorously.

As reason is the glory of man, so the lamp of reason is eloquence.

[Referring to LBJ:] ... one of the few politicians with whom I found it uncomfortable to be in the same room.

We took the advertising account for Johnson’s campaign because our staff is deadly afraid of Goldwater

Mayors make tough decisions; Senators make tough speeches.

We can argue and we can disagree, but we don’t need to poke our fingers in each other’s eyes in order to get our points across.

In a body [Congress] where there are more than one hundred talking lawyers ...you can make no calculation upon the termination of any debate and frequently the more trifling the subject the more animated and protracted the discussion

A Senator is to a microphone as a dog is to a fire hydrant.

Eloquence is an art of saying things in such a way—(1) that those to whom we speak may listen to them without pain and with pleasure; (2) that they feel themselves interested

He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.

Permit me also to express my great admiration of the thoughts expressed by you, with such eloquent simplicity & appropriateness, at the consecration of the cemetery. I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.

Lyndon Johnson was eleven of the most interesting people I ever met

Unlike the current occupant of the White House [George W. Bush], he has no difficulty in orally extemporizing a series of grammatical English sentences, each containing a main verb.