Everett Dirksen Quotes

I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.

When I feel the heat, I see the light.

We have been through this is biennial convulsion four or five different times over the past 10 or 12 years, and now it appears that we are going through this quiet agony all over again.

During a political campaign everyone is concerned with what a candidate will do on this or that question if he is elected except the candidate; he's too busy wondering what he'll do if he isn't elected.

Life is not a static thing. The only people who do not change their minds are incompetents in asylums, and those in cemeteries.

The U.S. Senate - an old scow which doesn't move very fast, but never sinks.

The mind is no match with the heart in persuasion; constitutionality is no match with compassion.

When a member of the House moves over to the Senate, he raises the IQ of both bodies.

Dirksen's Three Laws of Politics: 1. Get elected. 2. Get re-elected. 3. Don't get mad, get even.