Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations is the world’s largest collection of quotations about and by historians, politicians and other public figures. There are over 49,000 quotations with citations in the collection and the number grows every day. The quotes are organized in a searchable data base and is available to all on the World Wide Web of the Internet. The collection may be searched by author, idea, subject or actual text. For the technically inclined, we enable field searching as well as free text searching.

Audience

The collection is designed for the use of journalists, teachers, historians, political scientists and the many other people who are interested in politics and political history. It is also a tool for working politicians and their staffs. Heavy use of it is made by students from elementary school through the universities.

Young Children Are Users

Political discourse has always included material regarding ethics and morality. In addition sex has been a part of the world’s political scene since Biblical times, both in terms of scandal, influence, and behavior regulation, not to mention censorship. There are quotations herein which some may not regard as suitable for children because of their sexual content. Also violence and atrocities are covered. Quotations are included from some of the most despicable human beings who have ever lived. Various religious views are herein as well as attacks on almost all.

In the tens of thousands of quotations there are many that would offend almost anyone. Certainly there are many that espouse views different from any particular parent or caretaker for a child. Dr. Eigen has observed,

“When a young child is skilled enough to use a tool like this and interested enough to actually do so, that child is almost certainly mature enough to know that one does not believe everything that one reads and that there are different viewpoints. Also, that there are and have been evil people in the world. When my granddaughter was 8 years old, we would use it to look up things together. I personally would have no qualms about young children using the collection if they were interested, but in the final analysis, this is a decision that belongs to the parent or guardian.”

Searching the Quotations Collection

Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations has been organized and programmed so that a number of different kinds of searches are possible through Dynamic Quotesearcher™,. The searches can range from simple to complex.

Simple Search

The Basic Search Screen

The graphic at the left is the basic search screen for Eigen’s Quotations, Essentially, the search screen can be thought of in two parts. The left hand side, circled in green is for simple searching, and the right hand side, circled in red, can be used for simple searching or for more expanded searches where you can search only a part of the record—just authors, or just concepts, as well as the whole record.

For a basic kind of search, type the word for which you are searching in the left hand (green circled) box. The graphic shows a search for “Senate.” Then click on the “Search” key or press the “Enter” key on the keyboard.

After the search is done two things will happen.

1. A Search Results window opens summarizing your search and telling you how many quotations were found that contained the word “Senate.” In this example there were 530 found.

2. Following that information a list of the “hits”—the found quotations—will appear. You can click on any one of these and view the full quotation display. Note that if there are more than 100 quotes found meeting your search criteria, as in this example, only the first 100 will be listed. If you want more, narrow your search somewhat and repeat. Often by scanning several of the first 100 you will come up with a good way to get what you want for a more narrow search.

What Will Actually Be Found

Quotations will be found where the word “Senate” appears anywhere in the record for that quotation. All of the following would be found and display as hits:

· Quotes with “Senate” as a part of the quotation.

· Quotes with “Senate” as one of the concepts for the quotation even of “Senate” does not appear on the quotation itself.

· Quotes where “Senate” might have been used in the citation.

· Quotes where “Senate” might be a word in the commentary.

· Quotes where “Senate” might have been part of the quotation author such as “United States Senate”.

This is the most powerful of the searches although the simplest. It finds any quote where the word “Senate” used in any way.

String Sensitivity

Quotations will be found where the word “Senate” is used. However, quotes will also be found where “Senate is a part of a word. “Senatorial” for example will generate a hit even if “Senate” does not appear as a whole word.

Case Sensitivity

All our searches are case insensitive. This means that capitalization is ignored.

Senate senate SENATE sENatE

will all produce the same results.

Time To Search

The time it takes to complete a search using Dynamic Quotesearcher™ depends on a number of factors. Here are a few:

· The complexity of the search

· The number of other people trying to search at the same time

· The speed of your connection to the Internet

· The speed at which the Internet is operating at that moment (Yes, it varies.)

· The characteristics of your computer: processor, memory, bus, etc.

Try and avoid clicking the “Search” key several times. It does not speed the process up, and often actually slows it down. Each time you click “Search”, the search may start all over again. The vast majority of the searches complete in just a few seconds.

Remember, the search may have completed only you may not realize it. Depending on the configuration of your browser and the size of your browser window, the hits may be appearing “below” your screen and you may have to scroll down to see them.

Another clue is the screen refresh progress indicator of Explorer or another web browser. In the figure to the left it is circled in Yellow. If the indicator does not move at all or seems hung up for 15 or 20 seconds then something is wrong, and you may want to open a new browser window and try again. A short delay of a few seconds however is not uncommon if there are many people searching at the same time.

Displaying the Hits

All the found quotes that match the search criterion are displayed sequentially as the illustration below illustrates. For each hit a summary of the quotation information is displayed. It begins with a sequential number followed by the authors name and the “Eigen Number” of the quotation. Each quotation has been assigned a unique number beginning with 10,001. If you communicate with us about a quotation you can refer to it by the Eigen Number. Likewise Eigen Numbers will be used for cross references throughout the collection.

After the Eigen Document ID Number, another number is displayed in square brackets. This is the “Popularity Index” for that quotation. This is a number based on how many and how often other users have found this particular quotation in their searches. As a result of your search, each of the quotations found and/or displayed will have its Popularity Index recalculated. On the next line the quotation phrase appears. In some cases this is all the information you will want. However, if you click on the first line with the Author and numbers, the entire full record of the quotation will be displayed. The first line of each quotation found appears in the traditional blue underlined font showing that it is linked to the full record. The full record contains (in order of appearance):

· The name of the quotee

· The Eigen Identification Number of the Quote

· The quotation phrase

· A graphic of the quotee (if one is in the system)

· The full quotation

· The quotee particulars (dates of birth and death) and positions held or profession

· The citation showing the source of the quotation

· The context of the quotation

· The Eigen Numbers of other quotations which might have particular relevance to the quote. These always appear in orange and they are linked to those entire quotations. Clicking on any of these will open and display that related quotation. Clicking on the Back Arrow of your web browser will return you to the original quote from which you started. So will clicking on “Click Here for Another Search” So cross referencing or hypertext is built into Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations.

· The conceptual terms for that quotation complete the record. The number of conceptual terms will be at least 1 but there may be as many as 20 or more. These conceptual terms are also hyperlinked and if you want to see other quotes which are also about that concept, you simply have to click on a conceptual term.

Difference Between the Quotation Phrase and the Full Quotation

Some quotations are quite long. It is given and referred to as the full quotation. However, the editors have sometimes chosen the most famous phrase or the most critical part of the quotation and designated that as the quotation phrase. So the quotation phrase is always a part of the full quotation. In most cases, especially with the shorter quotation, the quotation phrase and the full quotations are identical.

Context

Some quotations have meaning only in the context in which the quotation was first uttered or written. Where that is the case, that context is explained in this section. The context field is also used to explain terms or words that are old and have different meaning from the current one. Sometimes, the context field is used to explain some of the historical background of the quotation. While this may be unnecessary for some users, others may not be familiar with that aspect of the historical or political context and with some quotations, that is provided. In many quotations, there is no context that is included.

Different Kinds of Simple Searches

The right hand side of the screen, the portion circled in red, is an alternate way of beginning a new simple search. This right hand panel is always visible—even when lists or found quotations are displayed. This is the fastest way to start a new sample search and avoids having to go back to the home page basic search screen.

The simple search described above finds all quotations regardless of where the search word appears—in the quotation, the citation, the context commentary, the concepts, the author. This is the default simple searching method. However, with the right hand search, you have some search options. Note in the screen graphic above that there are five radio buttons under the “Search” button.

· All Fields

· Author Only

· Quotation Only

· Area Designations

· Concepts

The first is always already selected by default. However if you click the “Author Only” button, only quotations where “Senate” appears in the author field will be found. “U. S. Senate”, “Canadian Senate”, “Senate Ethics Committee” and the like will become hits only if those institutions are the authors of the quotations. Quotes about the Senate will not be, and quotes where the word is only used in the citation will not become hits.

You could choose the Concepts radio button and then the hits will be all those quotations in the collections that are about The Senate or about any Senate for that matter

Another option is the radio button for Quotation Only. The Search for Senate with All Fields selected will produce hits for, by or about the Senate or any Senate or any quotation where the word senator appears in the citation. If you select Quotation Only then the only hits will be those in which the word Senate appears in the quotation itself. Other appearances of senate will not count.

Multiple Words

The right hand simple search process can multiple words as well. However there the search will require the presence of all of them to produce a hit. The order is irrelevant however. But they must all be present.

Window Sizing

You probably know that windows may be sized to the tastes and needs of the user. Ideally, Eigen’s Politician & Historical Quotations will be used in a maximum sized window. However, it will function with a smaller window except that it will not be as convenient. For example, if the width of the window is diminished, the simple quotation panel on the right will be truncated and might disappear from view. Changing the height of the window tends to be easier, but ideally the maximum size is most efficient.

Left Side Searching

The right side search was limited to searching for a set of words all of which would have to be present to produce a hit. Consider the phrase: “Freedom of Speech”

If you used the right hand search with those three words you would get any quote whose record contained the phrase. However you will obtain more on your list of hits. For example, if a sentence in the records said, “We have to choose the better or two alternatives. Either we have to give a speech about freedom or hold a press conference.” The search would find this quotation also even though it has nothing to do with “freedom of speech.” What we need is an expanded form of searching that could find exact phrases—not just the words but the words in a particular order.

On the left hand search side, click on the phrase “Expanded Search,” The Expanded search screen will appear in the left hand side.

The Expanded Search Screen

Consider the screen shown at the left. It shows the expanded search features. There are 4 different logical kinds of searches possible in expanded search.

Word Match: This searches for all of the words any place in the entire record for the quotation. If you search for “Congress”, you will obtain quotations which use the word “Congress”, quotations about Congress, quotations by the Congress. The word “Congress” need not appear in the actual quotation to obtain a hit. “Congress” may be one of the concepts/key words. Or “Congress” may appear in none of these but just appear in the citation because the quotee was a member of Congress.

Note that there are 4 different rectangular boxes. Each of these uses a different Boolean logic principle with which to do the search. The first box uses a logical AND. All the words in the box (separate with spaces) must be in the quotation record for the quotation to be a hit. The order of the words makes no difference. It is their absence or presence that is important. So if the box contained “Congress corruption debate” all the quotations that would be found would have all three of the words.

Exact Phrase: The second box will cause only the exact phrase to be found. If you search for “Cost of Living”, “of living costs” will not be found even thought it uses the same key words. This must be an exact match of words in the same order. This is the only search type that is a little tricky. The reason is that in order to handle all the people searching the entire data base much of the searching software ignores so called “stop words” like “the”, “an”, “in” and many other common words. So the Exact Phrase search functions perfectly only if you are searching the “Quotation Only”. If one of the other searches such as “All Fields” is wanted, use the “Word Match” which requires all the words and do not bother with simple stop words.

Any Word: The third box is the logical OR. The quotes found may contain any of the words in the box. If there are several words from the box found or just one, it makes no difference. The quote will be displayed as a hit.

Not: The fourth box is the logical NOT. If any of the words in this box are present, the quote will not be returned as a hit. This box is usually used in conjunction with one or more or the first three boxes. For example, if you wanted to search for quotes on treaties but were not interested in peace treaties, you might put “treaties” in the first box and “peace war” in the 4^th box.

Area Designation: All the quotations are organized also by subject area. The first 7 areas are:

· Abortion, Birth Control

· Agriculture

· Appointments

· Arts, Culture & Entertainment

· Bureaucracy

· Business & Commerce

· Campaigns & Conventions

When you click on the words “Area Designations” under the radio button, a new window with a list of all the pre-designated areas—in alphabetical order—appears...By clicking on any of the areas, a search is performed for all quotations in that area of interest. For example, you might be interested in reading some of the classic political insults of all time. You could choose the area “Compliments & Insults” and click on that. You will find more than 2,200. As with all searches of Eigen’s Quotations, the order in which the hits appear on the screen is based on the Popularity Index of the quotations.

Concepts / Key Words: Even though a word does not appear in a quote but it is descriptive of the quotation or its subject, the quote can still be found in Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations. Each and every one of the more than 40,000 quotations have been reviewed by Dr. Eigen and his editors. They have added these conceptual index terms, There are over 17,000 different conceptual terms on which one can search. Click on the “Concepts/Key Words” radio button Place the concept words for which you are searching in one or more of the boxes. In the example below, we inserted “treaties” and “covenants” in the 3^rd box. and clicked on the Search button.

In this case, all the quotations which relate to the concept of treaties or to the concept of covenants will appear in the hit list. As usual, they will appear in order based on their Popularity Index. This will find all quotes about or relating to either treaties or covenants—not just those quotations which use the one or more of the search terms. As an example, one of the quotations found will be one of Woodrow Wilson’s famous ones, # 60150:

They have shamed us in the eyes of the world

Note that this quotation neither uses the words “treaties” nor “covenants.” But it is about the fact that the Republican-controlled Senate refused to ratify the treaty that would establish a League of Nations. This covenant was thought by many to be the most important of the first half of the 20^th century and there are those who believe that the consequent failure of the League of Nations without the United States was a major cause of WWII. So this important historical quotation could easily be missed with a classic searching engine—even a Google. Because they can only search for the words in the quotation or other text. Here the quotation is found because it is about a treaty.

Another use of this kind of concept search is to find quotations about people as opposed to quotations by people. For example, if you use the All Fields button and input “John Kennedy”, you will find all the quotes about President Kennedy. But you will also get all the quotes by Kennedy. However, if you use the Concept/Key Word search radio button and input “Kennedy, John”, you will only get quotations about Kennedy and not by him. Note that where names are used as concepts or key words, the form is to key in the last name first, followed by a comma, followed by the first or other names if you are using the “exact phrase” search.

Clicking on the words will list all the possible index terms in the collection. There are over 17,000. They are presented alphabetically. Clicking on any one of these will produce all the quotations for which the conceptual term was relevant. As usual, these are listed in Popularity Index order.

Author Search: The 4^th kind of search is an author search. By clicking this radio button, the search will find all the quotes which match the words you input. If you only know the last name, that is all you absolutely need. For example the illustration shows the hits if one searches for “Armstrong.”

Note that there are not only 10 quotes listed on the first screen, but there are 8 different “Armstrongs” displayed. If you want all the quotations from one of them, do another author search using the first and last name or the names and initial. The more particulars that you key in, the better you will narrow down your hit list to a single author.

Note at the bottom of the first page of author hits there are 2 red page numerals—1 and 2. This means that you have 2 screen pages of hits. The page number that is displaying is NOT underlined; the others are. So if you want to view the other pages, just click on any of the page numbers that are underlined. As with any other quotation list, clicking on the blue first line will display the entire quotation.

Hint: Some cultures of the world use or have used different conventions for naming. Latin America, parts of Asia, and ancient Rome are examples. Cicero had several first and middle names. If you do not find the author for whom you are searching using an author search, try the same name with a general All Fields search or try an All Fields search with any word rather than all words.

Should you want to view all the possible authors in the collection, click the words “List of Authors”. Another screen will appear with the authors in alphabetic order. Clicking on any of these will display all the quotations for that particular author in order of their respective Popularity Indices. There are over 11,000 different authors represented in this collection. Quotations are added virtually every week. The exact number at any particular time can be seen just under the masthead on the basic search screen.

Problem: In all societies there are fewer names in use than there are people so multiple people often share the same name. Over a long historical period, this problem can become extensive. Where there are two or more individuals of the same name, we have referred to one or more by including the dates of birth and death in parentheses after the name. So in this way you can identify the different users of the same name. Note that in these cases the birth and death dates will appear twice—once in the citation after the author name as is typical of almost all quotations and in those instances of potential duplicate use of names, the dates will also appear in red after the name.

Browsing: List of Authors, Concepts, and Areas

If you wish to examine or browse all of the Authors, you can click on the Browse Authors choice on the right hand side of the screen or on the List Authors on the Expanded Search screen on the left hand side. A fill list of the over 11,000 authors in the collection is made available. Clicking on any one will return a list of quotations by that author in Popularity Index order.

Similarly a list of all the concept terms can be perused. Clicking on any concept term will produce all the quotations dealing with that concept. Not that there are over 17,000 different concepts so this is a very extensive list. They are organized alphabetically in two columns.

The Area Designations can also be listed, and that list functions in the same manner only there are just over 100 different areas.

Eigen Number Search

It is also possible to search for a quotation by number. Recall that each quotation in the collection has been assigned a unique Eigen Number. This is most important for the editorial staff and the computer system. However, there are occasions where users would use the Eigen Number. For example, in the cross referencing options of a quote the Eigen Numbers appear in orange and are hot linked to the quotations. But often, scholars, journalists or others interacting with colleagues and editors use the Eigen Numbers as a short-hand reference. Also, when communicating with our editorial staff you can mention the Eigen Number and save effort.

If you do wish to search for a quotation by Eigen Number, you will find a fill-in box below the search button on the Expanded Search screen. Just enter the Eigen Number for which you are searching there and click on the search button above—the same button you always use in an expanded search. When searching by Eigen Number,

· Enter one 5 digit number only.

· Do not use commas or any punctuation marks.

· Be sure that the other fill-in boxes above are blank.

The found quotation will appear in the usual format.

Note that there are a few Eigen Numbers for which no quotation will be found. In the past, if we discovered a phantom quotation for example, we simply deleted the quotation from the collection. In other cases we inadvertently had a duplicate quotation and deleted it. We do not reuse the Eigen Number. There are a few other reasons why a quotation may have been deleted. In any event those are the reasons for the apparently unused numbers.

Spelling and Searching

Spelling is very critical in computer searching. A computer has been described as a giant moron who can only do a few things but can do them very rapidly. The computer has no judgment. Incorrect spelling is the biggest problem in the utilization of computerized search engines. So be careful, and if you get no hits where you would think there should be some, check the spelling and try again.

Google has done a wonderful and exemplary job of detecting many possible misspellings and offering the user the option of the correct spelling. However to do this one has to have a usage base that is quite extensive. After a few years, we will be able to also add alternatives for the most common misspellings, but as of today, care is needed.

Searching for Strings

It is possible to search for an exact match of a phrase. For example you might want to search for “Ask not what your country can do”. This must be done in the expanded search by placing the phrase “Ask not what your country can do” in the “exact phrase” box. Do NOT add the quote marks. Do not use quote marks in the right hand search box or in the other boxes of the expanded search. Some search engines allow the quotations to signify an exact phrase, but if a quote mark is added to Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations the computer will search for the phrase with the quotation mark and only find it if it exists in exactly that form.

Also remember that the search engine—except when it is searching for an exact phrase” ignores common words such as “an”, “the”, “a”, “of” etc. So do not even include those when inputting words to search for in the right hand search of the other (non exact phrase) boxes of the basic or expanded search boxes.

Popularity Index

Each quotation earns a Popularity Index based on how often and to what extent the quotation is found and displayed. It takes into consideration the aggregate behavior of all users of Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations. The Popularity Index is a normalized number. 100 represents and average quotation for the collection. If the index is higher than 100, it means that the quotation is more popular than average. A number smaller than 100 indicates that the quotation is less popular than the average.

A popularity index of 160 indicates a quotation that is much more popular than the average in the collection. A 78 index would mean that the quote was much less popular than the average. However an index of 187 would show a quotation which is more popular than one with an index of 128 for example. And a 42 index indicates a quotation is less popular than a 67.

All new quotations start off with an average index of 100. Then depending on the audience behavior, that score will go up or down thereafter.

Whenever search hits are listed, the order of the list is in order of Popularity Index score with the highest scores—the most popular quotations—being listed first.

At this time there is no way to add a filter to the search to select only those quotations that are above average in popularity or look for the unpopular ones. However, you can search for other criteria and the most popular hits will be at the top of the list. If you would profit from an ability to filter on Popularity Index please let us know and we will consider adding that capability in future versions.

Please note that the Popularity Index is not an indicator of importance necessarily or even of value. It just measures what our audience behavior has been over time. During the 2006 debate over the prerogative of the President to override Congressional passed laws for what he believed the nation’s defense, quotations about wiretapping, secrecy executive powers, obedience to law, and the Presidency were sought much more frequently than usual as journalists, students, political scientists and others were studying these issues. So temporarily the Popularity Indices of these quotations went up and stayed that way until the issue became less popular and over time the quotations receded to their normal levels but they stayed high for a while. Popularity is simply popularity and does not necessarily imply anything else.

About Quotations & Their Organization

Concept Searching

This is the only major collection of political and historical quotations that can be searched by concept as well as literal words. Some quotation collections are searchable by subject but there is only one subject for each quotation. There can be many concepts inherent in a quotation, only one of which is the subject. In this collection quotations can be found based on the concept about which the originator was talking or writing as well as the usual meanings of the literal words of what he or she said or wrote. These selections and choice of concept/index terms are somewhat subjective. When you display the full quotation on the screen, the concepts chosen by the editors for that particular quotation are displayed in blue under “Concepts and Keywords” as is illustrated on the left.

Hyperlinked Concepts

These concept terms are hyperlinked. If a particular quotation is of interest to you, often it is because of the concepts that are covered by the quotation. To follow up and see more quotations about that particular concept, you need only to click on the blue concept term and Dynamic Quotesearcher™ will find all the other quotations related to that particular concept So a journalist working on a story or a student on a paper can follow the conceptual thread of ideas and concepts.

Large Type Feature

For those users who feel more comfortable using a larger type of font size, Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations has made the font size controllable by the user. In the left side of the basic search screen there are three F’s for font control:

F F F

These are in three different sizes. Clicking on the largest F will convert all the text to a much larger type. The smallest will give you the most information on a line but will be harder to read for those of us who are far sighted or who are getting a little older. Click on the F that is most comfortable for you.

Context

“Out of Context”

All quotations, by definition, are out of context. There is obviously no substitute for considering the entire source and knowing the circumstances then existent that might bear on the quotation. However, that is time-consuming and difficult, and although we always encourage it, we apologize to all the quotees who have had their complete views and thoughts truncated by the intellectual artificiality of the quotation selection and reproduction process.

The reader however should remember that context is extremely important. Specifically:

· The quotation might not represent the views of the quotee. It well may have been a “cheap shot” out of context.

· Public figures change their views over time as all of us do. Their views in the quotations may have been from an earlier, “less enlightened” portion of their career, or, as in the case of William Jennings Bryant, running three times for President, represented the high point of his political thinking before disappointment at electoral rejection and the need to earn a living from the “lecture circuit” dominated. The quotations changed

· Quotees sometimes establish straw men, if only to knock them down. Occasionally they are remembered most for the argument that they never believed to begin with.

· Occasionally, a public figure is joking, but with the context gone, and sarcasm and irony being what they are, it is hard to tell.

· Many quotations were never intended by the quotee to be public. They thought that they were private. To some, these are the most interesting and more accurately reflect their views. To others, statesmen should only be judged by their “official” pronouncements. We have sided with the former.

So context is not just that of the individual quotation and its immediate time, but of a public and private life that spans decades of time and a panoply of thoughts and ideas.

However, throughout the history of politics one of the strongest weapons politicians have had is quoting their opponents out of context. Often it is very clear and transparent as when orthodox Republican politicians banded together to defeat writer Upton Sinclair who was poised to win the California gubernatorial election. By handing out flyers and sending agents to public places and correctly attributing to Sinclair the dialogue of characters in his novels, he was made to look like the very villains he was condemning. Every nasty thing that a villainous character of his had ever said in a novel was quoted implying that these quotations were Sinclair’s views rather than the ravings of characters he had invented. Transparent as the technique was, it worked.

Much more subtle was the castigation by Vice President Cheney of candidate John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential campaign. The VP quoted Kerry as calling for a more “sensitive” approach to administration war policy. Kerry had used the term to propose being more delicate in the relationships with our allies, actual and potential. Cheney stated that the opponent was advocating being more sensitive towards the enemy. The difference hung on the context of the full panoply of Kerry’s criticisms.

These two dramatic examples should act as a warning to all who consider political quotations ever—in this collection, in the media, in the history books or anywhere else. The quotation may well be notable, but it may not have been a fair representation of the authors view. Read cautiously! Consider the source! Examine the context of the use of the quotation as well as that of the original utterance or writing itself. For speakers and writers, consider carefully how your words might be taken out of context, because they always have been and unfortunately are likely to always be in the future.

Political Use

Political figures not only generate quotations but use them often. Sometimes they are used as civil incantations in preludes or announcement of serious action. They can connote careful reflection and study, consideration of history and precedent. Quoting another politician associates in the public mind current views and character with those of the quotee -- virtue and wisdom by association. In early America, politicians were most fond of quoting George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Then Abraham Lincoln was included, and recently Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy have joined the ranks of frequently quoted American politicians by other American politicians.

Often, the politician uses the quotation for the age-old reason of communicating. The capture of an important idea in relatively few clear words, has been the most important strength of the great quotation over the ages. Thus, proverbs and aphorisms have come down to us, even though there is no identifiable author or authority.

Interestingly, the more important or serious the speech, moment or crisis, the more likely a leader is to use quotations for each of the reasons just given.

On some occasions, the major reason a particular quotation is important is because of the fact that it was used by a leader to announce a major policy or justify significant action. Such is the case with the quotation of Pope Gregory IX when he said, “It is the duty of every Catholic to persecute heretics.” That was the beginning of the Inquisition which not only had serious consequences for people the world over, but had political implications throughout American history and has icons of meaning for most of us to this day. It was quoted by the American Know-Nothings to justify their anti-Catholic positions, quoted by political enemies of Al Smith, the first Catholic to run for President, refuted by the Kennedy forces in that Presidential run, and constantly and clearly contradicted by the Catholic Bishops of today. We can even see the history of reform in a historical series of quotations.

Quotation Inclusion

What Makes a Good Quotation

There is a long history of collection of quotations, but most of these collections are not explicit about their selection criteria, and when they are explicit there is not found much agreement but the two qualities that seem to be most important are:

· Length: The best quotes are terse. Benjamin Franklin’s description of the policy choices for the colonies in forming a confederation is a classic example: “Join or Die”

· Idea: The quotation expresses an idea that itself has significance.

After those two, another set of variables helps to make decisions

· Humor: This is always better than not. The more sharper and pointed the better. Funny put-downs and insults are among everyone’s favorites. Politicians such as Mo Udall and Alan Simpson have used humor to make points and obtain more press and media coverage, including placement and inclusion in this collection. And occasionally some of the funniest lines come from public figures not known for their humor. Such was the case when President Theodore Roosevelt had been accused of illegal, unethical and skulldugerous behavior in obtaining the land on which to build the Panama Canal. The President had worked the better part of the night drafting a public defense of his actions as he saw the situation. He asked Elihu Root, his Secretary of State, for Root’s assessment of Roosevelt’s defense argument. The reply: “You have shown that you were accused of seduction and you have conclusively proved that you were guilty of rape.”

· Insults: Throughout history, politicians have had large egos and an instinct for the jugular with respect to their rivals and in some cases even their friends and colleagues. These make for many of the most interesting quotations, humorous or not. Some or the most devastating insults are made by friends and supporters who never intended the effect. One of the best examples of this class is Marilyn Quayle’s defense of her husband, Vice President Dan Quayle. He had been accused of having carnal knowledge of a beautiful woman who was present at what the Vice President had explained was just a golfing weekend. His wife explained why the innocent golf explanation was credible. “Anyone who knows Dan Quayle knows he would rather play golf than have sex any day.”

· Eloquence: Eloquent quotations are wonderful devices for the appreciation of the eloquence without investing all the effort of reading entire speeches. Rhetorical qualities such as alliteration make a quote more noteworthy such as “Sex and money always prowl in the penumbra of power.”

· Historical Significance: Historically significant quotations are often included if one or two of the other elements are present. The last words of Franz Ferdinand, “It is nothing” after he had been shot by an assassin would not be particularly notable except for the fact that the Archduke’s death, far from “nothing” was one of the major links in the chain of events that became the First World War. Human history has had fewer events of such significance. Many quotations are included because they accompanied (or were reactions to) the introduction of significant policy changes or other key historical events.

· Timeliness: Timely quotations are usually more interesting than untimely ones. So quotations, even from hundreds of years ago, that reflect on timely current issues tend to be valued in a contemporary collection. A good example is the observation of Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary, whose observation about the difficulty of making the case for free trade was prescient. 75 years ago; he observed, “The arguments for protection are more easily made attractive than those for free trade.”

· Surprise: Quotations that express points of view or character traits that are unexpected tend to make for very interesting quotations.

· Gaffs: The slip on the banana peel still has entertainment value in almost all fields. Quotations illustrating these are particular favorites, such as the response to a question in the middle of a national election that was given by Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, “The election campaign is no time to get involved in very, very serious issues.”

· Extreme Views: The very fact that humans can hold extreme views has always had a fascination for most of us. This is particularly true when the extreme view is held by someone who generally is moderate. In the case of extreme views, they tend to get included in any reportage, collection, or anthology including this one. A Christian cleric like Jerry Falwell is represented herein to a much greater degree than Christian theologians who are far more profound and theologically influential than he. His political activism is one reason, but his extreme views are heavily covered and reported and thus become more available to all of us. This has always been true, and so extreme views are typically over-represented in scholarly works as well as more popular efforts.

· Contradictions: We are endlessly fascinated by contradictions, especially in great men and women. So it was when Theodore Roosevelt who was then liberal enough to be the first President to have Blacks to the White House for dinner, said of Indians, “I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.” Such a bias against one minority group, in contrast to his liberal leadership roles with respect to other minority groups, represents a contradiction in character and personality that has fascinated people for years. And it is a surprise, if not a shock to most of us, that an enlightened soul such as Benjamin Franklin could say, “Those [German immigrants] who come hither are generally the most ignorant Stupid Sort of their own nation …. They will soon so out-number us … that we will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.”

· Inspiration: Uplifting quotations that inspire are among many people’s favorites. Examples of courage, morality, loyalty are all often are included for their inspirational value.

· Explanations: Those quotations which provide explanations of historical happenings are usually enlightening. Although not notable in their rhetoric, their content may well overcome other shortcomings and justify their inclusion.

· Lies: Politicians have throughout history have made statements that were at variance with the truth or actuality. Some of these are for malevolent purposes. Others were justified in their own minds as protecting military or state secrets or campaign tactics. Dwight Eisenhower wrote to President Truman, “The possibility that I will ever be drawn into political activity is so remote as to be negligible.” Only a week later he announced that “his hat was in the ring.” He was running for a Presidential nomination and had obviously had been less than truthful with Truman. Still others, may or may not have intended deception, but history or policy changes revealed the contradiction. Lyndon Johnson’s statement, “We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves” is a classic, and historians will debate for years whether this deception was intentional or there was a genuine change of mind and policy. The claims of the George W. Bush administration to justify the Iraq war were obvious untruths. Whether they represented deliberate deceptions of the public, honestly motivated errors in facts, judgments or intelligence, or an unwillingness to hear and/or accept information contraindicating desired policy positions, or a combination of all these reasons was debated as soon as the true facts emerged and ever since. Whatever the motivation, variations from historical truth are particularly fascinating if only because they cause much speculation as to motivation.

· Hypocrisy: A more general element that makes for a good quotation is hypocrisy. There seems to be an age-old delight in exposing hypocrisy, especially of the powerful, the elites and those who hold much of their influence and authority by virtue of their serving a larger societal purpose. This love of documenting hypocrisy tends to work to the detriment of those people who tend to be political activists at any particular time. When liberal politicians who were advocating integration of public schools were discovered sending their own children to private schools, their statements got much more coverage than they would normally obtain. Conservatives, who were strong advocates and supporters of Polish labor unions who were causing instability to Communist regimes and then opposed virtually every American labor union and the rights of workers got particular attention. But the social conservative of history are probably the group most affected by the proportional over-coverage of hypocrisy. Those politicians who generally were opposed to government involvement or interference with personal decisions generally got a pass from ridicule when their own foibles were publicly exposed. But when strong advocates of family values divorce loyal spouses in favor of younger women or have illegitimate children, or politicians who have castigated gays turn out to be homosexual themselves, or vehement abortion opponents turn out to have facilitated abortions when their indiscretions led them to facilitate abortions, their statements attract much more attention than the same statement would have had they not taken such strong public positions.

· Identity of Author: There is definitely a double standard that operates. A quotation from a President may well be included, while the exact same statement, if uttered by the mayor of a small town, would not have been selected for inclusion. Famous, rich and powerful people simply have a lower threshold for inclusion on each of the other factors. Perhaps that is the tabloid journalist in each of us. Nonetheless, it is operative in our collection as well as others. A good example of this principle is the introduction that the famous author, Mark Twain, gave to lecturer Winston Churchill in 1901. Twain was at the zenith of his career and Churchill, a young up and comer. Twain’s quotation while notable would never have made the collection had he been introducing almost any other English lecturer. It is the juxtaposition and confluence of contact of these two great public figures that makes the otherwise prosaic quotation worthy of inclusion.

· Duality: Some quotations are particularly interesting because they have been taken by listeners and readers to support diametrically opposed views on a subject. President George W. Bush told an audience, “Let law enforcement determine guilt or innocence.” This is one of the many statements of President Bush that contributed to his reputation as a polarizing politician. His supporters turned to this statement to illustrate that Bush was a supporter of the Constitution and civil liberties by urging the nation not to engage in vigilantism or give vent to their stereotypic views of minorities. Detractors took the same statement as a perfect example of Bush’s assault on Constitutional freedoms. Law enforcement does not determine guilt or innocence in our system. Police and prosecutors in America do not determine guilt or innocence; juries do. They argue that the Bush administration’s law enforcement policies are designed to have law enforcement usurp more and more of this facet of criminal justice. This type of quotation is quite rare, but when these do occur, they provide grist for the journalistic and historical mill.

· Quotation Used By Others: There are many quotations that would not necessarily score high on the other criteria but are used as quotations by other politicians, pundits, political scientists, political philosophers, and others in the political world. We therefore give a higher priority to these than otherwise thereby taking the empirical behavior of the political world and giving it great weight. If a quotation is a favorite of an important politician or political critic is may be included even though it does not meet the other criteria.

A Note About Historical Quotations

Some historical quotations are valuable only for the event or circumstances they describe. The person can be of little importance. One such example is that of a relatively obscure Confederate naval officer who, after the Civil war, became a mercenary in the Khedive’s army of Egypt: James Morris Morgan, 1845-1928:

“Cairo had not yet become the stamping-ground of tourists. Foreigners were curiosities, and the true believer's hatred for the accursed Giaour, or "Christian dog," was something that he was very proud of. A fanatic was liable to make trouble at any moment.”

The significance of the quotation lies in the illustration of the ambivalence of the Arab Moslem world with the West. While wanting and hiring its know-how and technology, Islamic fundamentalists were extremely hostile to Westerners and especially Christians. This quotation illustrates that this phenomenon is not new, existed long before there were foreign policy issues regarding Palestine and Israel, and probably stemmed from the Crusades.

Medium

The editorial decision to include a quotation in any particular collection is, in large part, influenced by the medium in which the collection is to be distributed. Until relatively recently, the printed book was the typical distribution mechanism. Given that the cost of book production is essentially proportional to length, economic considerations have traditionally limited editorial decision making. Most of us used the adage, “When in doubt, edit it out.” Dr. Eigen himself was an implementer of this principle when he compiled the large volume, Macmillan Dictionary of Political Quotations.

However, that was then, and this is now! There are no longer any practical economic influences on the issue of inclusion in an electronic collection where storage costs have reached the Steve Jobs critical point whereby they are so inexpensive that we behave as if they are free.

Digital searching and search-engine techniques have also vastly improved in effectiveness, time, and cost. An extensive de-limited search, that required specialized librarians working with mainframe computers a few hours in the 1980s can be today accomplished by most Internet users without external assistance in less than a minute. In addition we have now, for the first time in publicly available political data bases, added conceptual indexing which enables even more precise searching. Material will be found with a word search that describes concepts in the material even if the word itself never appears.

The import of this new technology is that we have reversed the now obsolete editing adage cited above. We have adopted, “When in doubt, include it.”

A Non-Criterion

One criterion that we deliberately do NOT use is one that has become increasingly popular in prioritizing information: Popularity on the Internet. Google has made one of the great contributions to information science by using popularity as a selection and ranking criterion. While this is extremely valuable, there are a few areas where it is not—or even counter productive. And quotations are one of those areas. The reason is this is so is that so many web sites have resorted to quotation scraping. This means that the sites automatically scour the Internet with “spiders”, indiscriminately pick up anything that appears to be a quotation, and then add it unvetted to their own collection. Then the Google spiders then index all these quotation sites, the words of a quotation might well pop up on dozens of different web sites when an editor or compiler had only included that quotation once or twice. The truly popular quotations are therefore not differentiable from the unpopular which have been scraped by so many other sites. This practice reaches its absurd extreme when a legitimate quotation site inadvertently includes a bogus quotation—when that has been fraudulently created to support a particular ideology or political viewpoint. Once the error is made, it gets “legitimated” by the scrapers if the frequency of appearance on the web is a criteria. Therefore we have specifically rejected this criterion.

We have however, created a “Popularity Index” which is a true measure of a certain kind of popularity: Namely the likelihood of appearing as a hit to a search by our users. It depends on human behavior rather then robotic spider behavior.

Political Positions

Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations is not a newspaper, radio show or TV news program. Although one of the design objectives was to build a tool for journalists, it does not have a conscious political position on each of the thousands of various issues that it covers. Nor is there any overt attempt to give "equal time" or "balanced coverage" to issues. The collection is certainly not a polemic and not intended, despite its length, as a Jeremiad. On most of the large, contentious issues (abortion for example), there will be coverage of a broad spectrum of opinion simply because there is a wide variety of quotations readily available. However on narrower issues (the desirability of Jewish parochial schools) there may be only one or two quotations which take only a single side of an issue. Immigration has been attacked ever since the first colonists arrived from Europe and some promptly became our first Nativists. There has been a significant, vocal “Know Nothing” element attacking further immigration in one form or another from ever since America was colonized. Equally passionate and extensively verbal immigration supporters have been in shorter supply despite the fact that virtually all Americans—with the exception of Native Americans—are and have been immigrants or descendants of same. Therefore, there are far more anti-immigration quotations than pro.

The quality of the quotation, (see What Makes a Good Quotation) is in this collection the determining selection factor for inclusion with little attention paid to fairness and balance. Most political issues can rarely be dichotomized anyway, despite the almost universal attempt by politicians and the media to make them so. Significant issues, especially over time, tend to be more complex and subtle. This is evident as one reads many different quotations across historical time on the same issue.

Doubtless we have failed to include many quotations that are excellent quotations and represent additional points of view. In many cases, it is not because these were considered and rejected considering our editorial principle of when in doubt, include the quotation. But more likely, they have never come to our attention. Almost every day we discover another quotation which we are amazed that we missed. We then include them in this “work in progress” which it will ever be. We welcome suggestions from all. Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations™ has been and is now made possible and practical by digital technology, a continuous publication with an amorphous beginning and no end so long as humankind politically organizes society and communicates about the process. If you have any suggestions for us, [Click here to suggest additional quotations to be included.]

Hateful Material

We have included much—the utterances of Adolph Hitler to the Grand Dragons of the Ku Klux Klan. We wish to apologize to those who are offended by such. We are ourselves. However, it is our belief that there is only two things worse for society than the publication of such material. First is the suppression of the material which if had been paid more attention to in its time, would have ameliorated much human tragedy. The second is the publication and dissemination while there is silence by those who teach and lead. Our inclusion is made in the fervent hope that Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations will be a useful tool in exposing the originators and the followers of hate mongers for what they are, and give politicians, educators, journalists, and other opinion leaders the resources to expose hateful material for what it is.

American Perspective

This work is American in perspective. While the roots of modern American political life were developed and nurtured in England and many other parts of the world, material is included to provide perspective on America, it's history, and current relationship with much of the world. Non-American views about America have a high probability of being included as opposed to say a Nigerian point of view of South Africa or a Chinese perspective on Mexico.

Quantity

Simply put, the majority of the quotations herein are by Americans. The majority are about America. The majority cover issues and events important to America and its history. However, there are many thousands of quotations which relate to the fundamental aspects of American Democracy and history which come from other nations and times far before the birth of the American republic. The United States was legally created within a few short years. However, the intellectual concepts, hopes, aspirations, fears and concerns of the Founding Fathers were shaped by thousands of years of political history. Indeed, things to be avoided were as strong drivers and motivators for the American Revolutionists as were things to be aspired to—and those were things of the past. The Scottish historian and political philosopher David Hume had no knowledge of America, but the early Americans all were familiar with Hume’s views and perspectives. The same is true for Locke, Plato, Voltaire, Martin Luther and countless others. At the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the delegates had access to a library which contained many of these earlier works. So this collection includes many of the foreign historical antecedents and predecessors of our modern political system—both positive and negative. In addition, there are many non-American quotations illustrating the reaction of the world to the American political scene.

When a foreign politician or writer generated universally applicable political or historical material these were also included even if there were no reference to America.

Word Usage

This American bias and perspective also manifests itself in the wording throughout. "The Constitution" refers to the U. S. Constitution and not the Constitution of Clarendon or the Turkish Constitution, albeit quotations of both of those documents are included. This is not indended to imply any arrogance; just a limitation of objectives for this work.

Other Approaches

It would be of great interest and furtherance of knowledge for additional works of this kind to be developed from the perspectives of other nations, but for the moment our attentions have been more than fully occupied with this limited objective.

Special National Perspectives

There are a number of foreign countries which although not American are represented extensively in this collection. Each has a separate relationship and explanation.

England

The political, legal, cultural and intellectual life of America has been influenced more heavily by England than any other foreign nation. The twin forces of the English common law and the political and civil rights of Englishmen, even under monarchy are implicit if not explicit in the every day lives of Americans. Historical alliances in the major military conflicts in the last century is also reflected in many of the quotations in this collection. The United States evolved from English colonies, and England was inextricably involved in American life thereafter, as our fiercest enemy, out most steadfast friend and ally, our banker and our debtor. And the English language itself, is the bridge over which most political ideas and descriptions have traveled throughout America and increasingly in the rest of the world.

Canada

The longest undefended border in the world lies between the United States and Canada. It was not always thus. America under the British fought along side their Canadian English compatriots and their Indian allies against the French and their Indian allies. After the American Revolution, much Western American public opinion clamored for the invasion of Canada. Such invasion was actually attempted but failed. Indians, who had chosen the losing side in the American Revolution emigrated to Canada, as did Tecumseh and Sitting Bull. They joined the French, English, Canadian Indians and the growing number of Scotch, Irish, Germans, Scandinavians, Jews and more recently Asians and Moslems. When slavery was tearing America apart, fugitive slaves were welcomed into Canada and given their freedom and the kind of opportunity that America promised but did not yet deliver to all. With time, trade, close foreign policy efforts, joint development projects, and serving as Allies in arms through four major conflicts and still today in peacekeeping, there is certainly no country closer to the United States, by any reasonable criteria--ranging from shared vales to ethnic background; from democratic capitalistic structures to strong preferences for civil rights and privacy, from business trade and cultural influences.

While Canada from the outside looks much like the United States, from inside the political system has evolved into a more gentle and genteel society, one in which the Canadians are secure in their physical borders but are troubled over the cultural erosion that America constantly makes against the traditional French- and British-Canadians. These groups have been so preoccupied by the esoteric issue of the special place and privilege of the French-Canadians within Canada, that they hardly had a chance to stop misunderstanding each other long enough to realize that the Yankees from the South were dominating Canadian entertainment, fast food, technology, finance, agriculture, fisheries, lumber. Perhaps most telling is the fact the a Canadian like Peter Jennings can rise in America to be the ABC Evening New Network Anchor and have two hundred million American viewers with not a clue to most that he is a foreigner. Commerce and entertainment and information flow across the border, almost totally unimpeded in both directions. To most Americans, Canadians seem to be us to the North, with a few quaint ideas and vocabulary words with which to engage in the national sport of the country whereby the French-Canadian Nationalists seem to make demands for the right to oppress other Canadian groups in ways in which they used to be oppressed themselves. -- the trickle-down approach to nation building. Meanwhile the English Canadians seem to spend most of their creative energies totally ignoring their historical partner’s different cultural and other traditions. This vexing problem parallels the American political dilemma of race and is heavily represented in Canadian political and historical quotations. This and other Canadian issues have blended into the American political and social scene just as American political thought and ideology as been infused throughout Canada.

Mexico

To the South, the immigration patterns and economic relationships appear in American headlines each day and the Mexicans observe American politics, and comment upon it, extensively because the policy of the President of the United States may affect the majority of Mexicans as much as, if not more so, than the policies of the President of Mexico. Historically, a substantial part of the land mass of The United States used to belong to Mexico, and the benefit to us has to be balanced against the trauma to the Mexicans. Historically, early Americans were as preoccupied with the potential of foreign powers using Mexico as a platform for aggression against American interests and territory in this hemisphere as we were with Cuba just a few short years ago. The history of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and California would be vacuous without the interaction with the history of Mexico. This history and modern human and commercial interaction provides much material in our collection of quotations.

Russia

The military and geopolitical relationship with the Soviet Union has seesawed between military alliance and potential martial adversary has dominated American public military consciousness in the last 50 years of the 20^th century. It has affected our national budget debate, civil liberties contests, educational and scientific policy. The preoccupation of many American leaders with the “Evil Empire” and the fear of American capitalists with the preeminent advocate of communism, has been reflected in American writing and speech. And that has, in turn, been reflected in this collection.

But even prior to the U. S. and Russia emerging as the world’s two superpowers, Russian history of the 18^th, 19^th and the early 20^th centuries finds its way into political and historical quotation sets as Russia was the archetype of backwardness of the so-called “Christian nations.” As such it provided material if even by contrast.

France

There was a time when no American political leader was not acutely aware of France’s history and metaphors of almost every political decision or situation could be found in the highs and lows of this remarkable culture and people. For our founding fathers, the policies of the French were, second only to England, in importance to Americans. Without the assistance of France, it is doubtful that there would have been any successful American Revolution. The most skilled of American leaders were dispatched to France. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson among them. So France has had more of an influence upon the United States than Germany, Sweden, or Holland. Also, perhaps the greatest commentator, analyst, and documenter of political and cultural America was De Toqueville, a Frenchman. These facts are reflected by many of the quotations relating to early America. In modern times, France’s influence and importance on the world stage has been receding while that of China and Japan has been growing.

Ancient Rome

Although no longer a country per se, the influence of the Roman Empire on the world in general and the Western world in particular was without peer. While we can trace most of our basic legal notions to England, they had precursors in the Roman Empire. The de facto cultural domination of the United States on the world stage does not compare to the extent of the influence the Roman Empire exerted. And no nation since has actually governed as much of the world. The Roman predilection to the written word, brings us much material that enriches our contemporary understanding of governance and politics.

The Vatican

Although not strictly a country, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church has for over a millennium exerted a range of influence on world affairs raging from direct governance and oversight of major European nations to influence throughout the world. Popes have been more influential than many kings and prime ministers and even wielded more power. While other religions have had profound spiritual and philosophical influence on the world, no other religion has organized itself as like a state and interacted with other states as if it were a nation. There are no formal Hindu or Jewish ambassadors in most major countries, but the Vatican is usually so represented. Popes throughout history have wielded enormous political influence and this influence continues to this day with the Vatican playing a significant part in the fall of the Soviet Union.

So in this collection, although other religions are represented by intellectual and spiritual leaders, Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations also includes quotations from the Vatican and many Popes almost as if they were coming from a major state.

Ireland

It is hard to imagine what the United States would be like if it were not the beneficiary of the troubles of Ireland, inextricably bound up with England. Although there are only about 5 million Irish men and women in Ireland, there are many times that number of Americans of Irish decent. However, even beyond that special relationship, the great Irish political and literary traditions combine to make the Irish, on a per capita basis, the richest treasure trove of political quotations in the world. The Irish political literature not only reflects great traditions of aspirations of independence and freedom, protest and revolution, war and peace, church and state. But the Irish have been so skilled politically, that under Parnell’s political leadership they even were able to control the balance of power of England’s Parliament. With their great oratorical and literary tradition, the Irish are much over-represented in this collection compared to their population numbers.

Israel

A strong alliance ever since the creation of that nation makes the relationship between America and Israel a very strong one with Israel the only free democracy in the Middle East. The volatility of the Middle East has kept Israel on the American media radar screen, and virtually no American President since Harry Truman has not created and managed a foreign policy with Israel as a significant component of his administration. And Israel has been suffering from, and coping with, Islamic fundamentalist terrorism long before America was so victimized. Their politicians and military leaders have had much to say that is useful in the current American debate on the “War on Terror.”

Culture and Mores Influence Quotations

Israel also is an example of another element of political quotation collecting. The political mores of that nation, the rough and tumble of a vibrant democracy, the political tradition of candor and an aggressive press that reports it (except for “security issues”) creates disproportionately more good material from which to draw. A comparison with Japan is useful. This country has a much longer history, has much more of an economic impact and as much geopolitical, strategic importance as Israel, yet there are relatively few quotations in the collection from Japan. Language is only part of the reason. The largest factor is that Japanese political figures are traditionally prudent, circumscribed, and verbally extremely responsible. The Japanese press sees itself as an important extension of the government in presenting the nation’s face to the public and the world. Modern Japanese politicians would not likely get jailed or otherwise punished for political candor. It’s just that culturally, the norm of maintenance of good relations and harmony, even with opposition politicians, takes on a level of importance, which while in the view of the Japanese is positive, makes the Japanese political scene relatively slim pickings for great quotations.

Protests & Demonstrations

The signs and banners of protesters are the zoom lenses by which we can focus on the difficult issues of a society. Throughout this collection these appear frequently.

However, protest signs and banners presuppose protests and demonstrations. These are only possible in societies of relative freedom. Few dictators allow any protests which will focus on their failings and foibles. The result, in a collection of quotation is that the negative messages of most protest signs appear related to some countries and not others. For example, there are no quotations from anti-Government protestor’s signs or banners for Saudi Arabia or North Korean. This is not because there are no problems which attract the ire of the citizenry. It is because, critical protests are not allowed. As a general rule, the more internal criticism publicly communicable within a society, the better and freer the society.

Negativism About America

There are many in our country who decry the plethora of negative statements regarding our country and its government. They are pained by the constant barrage of negativity that is directed on what appears to be the freest and most successful nation in human history. One of our Vice Presidents, Spiro Agnew, even uttered a memorable characterization of the critics when he described them as:

In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism

This collection of quotations is certainly guilty of the criticism of extensive criticism and negativity. We would hope that the reader would not conclude that our personal views of the nation are indicated by the proportion of negative exemplars. For we have been motivated by the same adage that drives other media:

When dog bites man, that is not news.
When man bites dog, there is news.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of utterances of the fact that America is the greatest country in the world. There is hardly a political leader or political commentator who has not literally said this or a variant. The wonderful things about America are so obvious to all, that unlike the situation in a few third world counties, no one has to look very hard to see them. As the Romans used to say, “Res Ipso Loquitor”—“The thing speaks for itself.” We see, hear, and read positive things about America so often, that it simply is of little use and less interest to try and collect these. As a consolation to those who are concerned with negative criticism about the country, as this and other collections will show, the more negative material that is printed, broadcast, or spoken about a country, the greater and better the country. It is only in the freest of nations that people can not only criticize the government, fairly or unfairly, but in extraordinarily few—only the greatest—do the negative materials get very wide distribution. Look for the nation where their media are full of criticisms, and there you will find a nation sufficiently free and confident to consider possible improvement from any and all sources.

As for the negative anti-American views of others, there is a similar de facto imbalance. When foreigners stop voting with their feet (immigrating) or with their treasure (investing), then perhaps we have to take great umbrage with negative anti-American view. But until then, recall the quotation of the contemporary historian Dr. Claire Berlinski:

Anti Americanism has been around as long as there has been an America

Journalists and Other Literati

Most of the people quoted in this collection are politicians. However, there are many quotations about politics and politicians from writers, philosophers, theologians, historians, political scientists, and particularly journalists. The latter have had interesting perspective on the political scene which they cover. In modern times, the journalists have themselves become public figures, sometimes with more influence over political events and public opinion than the politicians themselves. Can anyone doubt, for example, that columnists like George Will or Thomas Friedman have more influence over American national and governmental policy than most members of Congress? Or that Walter Lippmann had in his time? This is perhaps one of the great characteristics of a vibrant democracy. As long as public opinion influences politicians, those who can influence public opinion will have great political weight.

In addition, there is what we call the “Chris Matthews principle” which, crudely stated, argues that journalists are much better sources for finding political information than politicians as the former make their living by telling people everything that they know while the latter are generally very guarded and consider the affect and impact of every phrase that they write or utter.

Oral Traditions

Some cultures are steeped in an oral tradition as opposed to a written one. Many African cultures and Native American cultures are examples of oral traditional cultures where the written word was not necessary or expected to be used.

Another example is the contrast between Cambodia and Vietnam. While the two countries are adjacent, and both Asian, they have very different traditions and modern realities with respect to reading and writing. In Vietnam today, one can visit a university over 1,000 years old where the names of the graduates are carved into stone tablets—one each for the graduating class every 4 years. The tablets rest on the backs of stone turtles, the slowness of the creatures having been symbolic for the profession taught at the university: writing. Vietnam not only had the traditional Chinese pictographs, but over 500 years ago adopted their own Western style alphabet. The culture has a rich written tradition, with many documents and writings. Today, although very poor, Vietnam has an 80% literacy rate, In contrast, neighboring Cambodia’s literature was much more limited, and much of the existent written material was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge when they destroyed so many of their countrymen. The result is this collection has many quotations from Vietnam and few from Cambodia.

While the oral cultures may have had a wealth of political wisdom and doubtless there were many great sayings that would qualify for a collection such as this. However, the fact that they did not get written down, markedly decreased the likelihood that they would come to our attention or that of anyone assembling a collection of quotations. Even when a proverb or adage has come down to us, the speaker or originator and the context is usually lost. In modern times, where almost all cultures use the written word, there are still differences in extent and perceived legitimacy. A quotation from this collection by the Native American Activist, Russell Means, probably states the problem as well as it has ever been expressed.

“I detest writing. The process itself epitomizes the European concept of “legitimate” thinking: what is written has an importance that is denied the spoken. My culture, the Lakota culture, has an oral tradition, so I ordinarily reject writing. It is one of the white world’s ways of destroying the cultures of non-European peoples …

In marked contrast, consider this anonymous aphorism attributed to the Washington DC political and bureaucratic culture.

“If you didn’t write it down, you didn’t say it.”

Or the quotation from historian Thomas Cahill

“The illiterate leave few records.”

The result is a disproportionately small contribution and coverage of quotations from the oral cultures despite our serious attempt to overcome the differential. The tree that falls in the forest makes little sound. The oration that is never written down by someone will not likely survive. Modern technology will change that over the next centuries when we are able to capture, analyze, sort, and compare audio and video material. From that point on, the oral tradition may prospectively reach a par of written material, but the vast history of the oral tradition has probably already been mostly lost.

Writers

In creating this collection there was no effort made to balance views or have everyone in a given political class equally or proportionally represented. As a matter of fact, midway in the collection process we noticed that we had more quotations from Eleanor Roosevelt than from Franklin, the longest serving American President. Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, and Winston Churchill all seemed to be profusely quoted compared to other great leaders. The reason, we realized, is that these political figures were great and prolific writers. Mrs. Roosevelt, in addition to her UN and other political activities was a daily columnist and for many years of her life produced a newspaper column virtually every day. From a quantitative point of view. she wrote more columns than Walter Winchell, H.L. Mencken, or George Will. Thomas Jefferson’s letter output was so prodigious that no president, even in modern times with staffs of assistants, could claim so many letters. Both TR and Churchill authored more books than most other great writers, and had they not been great political leaders would have surely be known as great men of letters. Churchill wrote more books (38) than even prolific historians such as the great, late historian Stephen Ambrose.

However, Alexander Hamilton, who is known to us as George Washington’s Aide de camp and our first Treasury Secretary is probably the American champion of creating political written material. A journalist before he ever came to America as a young man, he never stopped writing throughout his political career which was cut short by his premature death in a senseless duel. Hamilton, at the beginning of the revolution, wrote numerous political tracts, many under pseudonyms as was then common. During the war, he was Washington’s do facto Deputy and Secretary, producing a trove of materials both under his own name and the General’s. After the war, he was the organizing force and principle writer of the Federalist Papers—perhaps the greatest documents ever written in the political field. As Washington’s Treasury Secretary, with no governmental precedents, he personally wrote all the plans, rules, regulations, justifications and Congressional reports on what was the largest of government departments. Nothing seemed too small for his pen. Having the responsibility for collecting import taxes and preventing smuggling, he organized the Coast Guard and personally wrote the guidance for each cutter on how to behave civilly whenever boarding ships. It is a testament to his talent that in the Cuban Missile Crisis the naval vessels which boarded the Russian ships still operated under his directives. If all that were not enough, throughout his entire career he wrote material for newspapers in the Caribbean from whence he had come. One could produce volumes of wonderful quotations of his alone.

So the prolific writer has a much greater chance of being read or coming to anyone’s attention, than does the average politician or public figure. Further, professional writers, like Eleanor Roosevelt and Alexander Hamilton know how to “turn a phrase.” They have a great advantage over their not so accomplished or prolific political contemporaries, especially in their utterances or writings finding their way into collections such as this.

Orators

The great orators, in addition to persuasion—the purpose of their oratory—tend also to be heavily represented in quotation collections. Because of their greatness, others describe their orations and quote from them, thus increasing the probability that their material would end up in quotation collections. Orators who prepared all their speeches in writing and published them, have the combined advantage of both the orator and the writer. The best example of this is Robert Green Ingersoll. Perhaps the greatest American orator in history, Ingersoll galvanized people throughout the country. His own political career was somewhat limited however as a result of his oratorical fame. Unlike other politicians who at the time could say different and at times contradictory things to different audiences with almost assured impunity (Even Abraham Lincoln in his famous debates with Stephen Douglas had different words for Southerners than he spoke for voters of the North), Robert Ingersoll, as the Attorney General of Illinois, was an atheist, and one who did not hesitate to criticize established religion. For example, consider the following quotation from his famous 1867 speech about slavery:

Every excuse that the ingenuity of avarice could devise was believed to be a complete justification, and the great argument of slave-holders in all countries has been that slavery is a divine institution, and thus stealing human beings has always been fortified with a "Thus saith the Lord."

Slavery had just been abolished; the abolitionists had won. Yet Ingersoll would not let all the moral and political blame fall alone on Southern slave-holders and politicians. He went after the established churches which had been silent on the subject such as the Catholics and the Baptists and contrasted them negatively with those religious organizations that had been major abolition factors such as the Quakers and the Methodists.

Because his oratory “had legs” as journalists describe news subjects that remain in the public interest for a long period, he was one of the very easy politicians to be heavily and deliberately quoted out of context. For example he was accused of calling the Constitution “criminal,” describing the American Eagle as, “a buzzard,” and the American flag, as “a rag.” While this was literally true, his entire quotation which was very widely distributed was:

I hate to think that all this [slavery] was done under the Constitution of the United States, under the flag of my country, under the wings of the eagle. The flag was not then what it is now. It was a mere rag in comparison. The eagle was a buzzard; and the Constitution sanctioned the greatest crime of the world

A lesser light might and often did say things of which most voters and opponents had no record. Ingersoll, with such large audiences and so many speeches is perhaps the first America

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Eigen’s Political & Historical Quotations™

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