Quotes about Thomas E. Dewey

Alice Roosevelt Longworth

He [Dewey] looks like the little man on the wedding cake.

Dewey had a patrician bearing of formality and a moustache and the little plastic and candy statues of a bride and groom that was placed on most wedding cakes and the groom tended to have a moustache and was dressed in a black tuxedo.

George F. Will

The first election I remember was Dewey Truman in '48. I was, I guess, seven years old.

Harold L. Ickes

Dewey has thrown his diaper into the ring.

When the 37-year-old Thomas E. Dewey announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination:

Paul Harvey

One vote. That's a big weapon you have there, Mister. In 1948, just one additional vote in each precinct would have elected Dewey. In 1960, one vote in each precinct in Illinois would have elected Nixon. One vote.

Sam Weller

Libraries are at a cultural crossroads. Some proffer that libraries as we know them may go away altogether, ironic victims of the information age where Google has subverted Dewey decimal and researchers can access anything on a handheld device. Who needs to venture deep into the stacks when answers are but a click away?

Bernard Benjamin Yamron

On election eve, [Thomas E.] Dewey conducted an eighteen-hour “talkathon” which ... also featured questions phoned in by callers from across the state.

This was Dewey’s New York State Gubernatorial Campaign. It appears to be the first TV talkathon where a candidate took call in questions from the voters.

Luis Walter Alvarez

If the president of the college had asked me what I thought about Dewey McLean, I'd say he's a weak sister. I thought he'd been knocked out of the ball game and had just disappeared, because nobody invites him to conferences anymore.

Jeffrey Tambor

It was the '50s, and the card catalog and the Dewey Decimal System were in fashion. I hung out in the 812 section - American theater and plays. This is where I first read Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' and was transfixed. I remember staring into space for what seemed an eternity after reading Linda Loman's final speech.

Everett Dirksen

We followed you before and you took us on the road to defeat.

Dewey had been the Republican Presidential Candidate in 1948. Although he and the Republicans were the overwhelming favorites, Dewey lost to Harry S Truman. In 1952, Dewey was a major supporter of Robert Taft for the Presidency. But other Republicans including Dirksen wanted Dwight D. Eisenhower as the candidate. Dewey had given a rousing speech telling the Party to nominate Taft. Dirksen then responded. Such a public rebuke of a former standard bearer was considered very insulting. However, Dirksen was saying what most Republicans believed. Despite an intense effort by Taft and the very conservative wing of the Party, Eisenhower was selected as the nominee and he won the Presidency.

Robert Taft

You really have to get to know Dewey to dislike him.

Michelle Rodriguez

The Dewey decimal system really works. So that's all I needed to know. Elementary school taught me that.

Spike Lee

I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated.

Warren Spector

The 'DuckTales' ensemble is clearly critical. There's the core set of characters - Scrooge, Webby, Launchpad, Huey, Dewey and Louie... Plus there's Gyro and Duckworth and Mrs. Beakley and so on. The cast is huge.

McGeorge Bundy

[Thomas] Dewey's view was that if he made no mistakes he would win So we sat around making sure he would make no mistakes. And I think we succeeded, but in fact that isn't the way it went. [Dewey lost]

the presidency against Harry Truman. Then a Republican campaign aide to Dewey

Chicago Tribune

DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN

Based on incomplete returns from the previous night, the newspaper staff concluded that Truman lost, and printed the "news." A famous picture shows Truman gleefully holding up the newspaper with its headline for all to see. Truman said on that occasion: "That ain't the way I heard it."

Thomas E. Dewey Quotes