An independent is a guy who wants to take the politics out of politics.

— Adlai Stevenson

But the Wisconsin tradition meant more than a simple belief in the people. It also meant a faith in the application of intelligence and reason to the problems of society. It meant a deep conviction that the role of government was not to stumble along like a drunkard in the dark, but to light its way by the best torches of knowledge and understanding it could find.

— Adlai Stevenson

Every age needs men who will redeem the time by living with a vision of things that are to be.

— Adlai Stevenson

Flattery is all right - if you don't inhale.

— Adlai Stevenson

If the pursuit of peace is both old and new it is also both complicated and simple. It is complicated for it has to do with people and nothing in this universe baffles man as much as man himself.

— Adlai Stevenson

I have said what I meant and meant what I said. I have not done as well as I should like to have done but I have done my best frankly and forth-rightly no man can do more and you are entitled to no less.

— Adlai Stevenson

I'm not an old experienced hand at politics. But I am now seasoned enough to have learned that the hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.

— Adlai Stevenson

In America any boy may become president and I suppose it's just one of the risks he takes.

— Adlai Stevenson

I remember my father telling me the story of the preacher delivering an exhortation to his flock and as he reached the climax of his exhortation a man in the front row got up and said 'O Lord use me. Use me O Lord - in an advisory capacity!'

— Adlai Stevenson

It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.

— Adlai Stevenson