Barbara Jordan Quotes - Page 2

We are a party of innovation. We do not reject our traditions, but we are willing to adapt to changing circumstances, when change we must. We are willing to suffer the discomfort of change in order to achieve a better future.

Let there be no illusions about the difficulty of forming this kind of a national community. It's tough, difficult, not easy. But a spirit of harmony will survive in America only if each of us remembers that we share a common destiny.

We must exchange the philosophy of excuse - what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.

I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which a man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He's just incapable of it.

The arts, instead of quaking along the periphery of our policy concerns, must push boldly into the core of policy. The arts are a response to our individuality and our nature and help to shape our identity. The arts are not a frill and should not be treated as such. They have the potential to become the driving force for healing division and divisiveness.

More is required of public officials than slogans and handshakes and press releases. More is required. We must hold ourselves strictly accountable. We must provide the people with a vision of the future.

We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community.

We call ourselves public servants but I'll tell you this: we as public servants must set an example for the rest of the nation. It is hypocritical for the public official to admonish and exhort the people to uphold the common good.

There is no obstacle in the path of young people who are poor or members of minority groups that hard work and preparation cannot cure.

If we promise as public officials, we must deliver. If we as public officials propose, we must produce.

The Supreme Court has always been the last bastion of the protection of our freedoms.

Justice of right is always to take precedence over might.

It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.

It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.

Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us.

I have faith in young people because I know the strongest emotions which prevail are those of love and caring and belief and tolerance.

We believe that the people are the source of all governmental power; that the authority of the people is to be extended, not restricted.

When do any of us ever do enough?

I never intended to be a run-of-the-mill person.

...we must face the fact that unilateral action on the part of the United States will never be enough to stop illegal immigration. Immigrants come here illegally from source countries where conditions prevail that encourage or even compel them to leave. Attacking the causes of illegal migration is essential and will require international cooperation.

A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation.

What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance.

We cannot improve on the system of government handed down to us by the founders of the Republic. There is no way to improve upon that. But what we can do is to find new ways to implement that system and realize our destiny.

The earth is bread we take and eat.

The Commission endorses prevention as the principal strategy to use in deterring illegal entries. We applaud the efforts of innovative Border Patrol leaders such as Silvestre Reyes with Operation Hold the Line in El Paso. Operation Hold the Line demonstrated that a strategic use of personnel and technology can combine at our land border, as it has for many years at our airports, to reduce unauthorized crossings.