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

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

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

Whatever the color of a man's skin, we are all mankind. So every denial of freedom, of equal opportunity for a livelihood, or for an education, diminishes me.

When I feel the heat, I see the light.

When all is said and done, the real citadel of strength of any community is in the hearts and minds and desires of those who dwell there.

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

But the basic difficulty still remains: It is the expansion of Federal power, about which I wish to express my alarm. How easily we embrace such business.

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

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

We are becoming so accustomed to millions and billions of dollars that 'thousands' has almost passed out of the dictionary.

L'homme qui n'a pas été anarchiste à seize ans est un imbécile. Mais c'en est un autre, s'il l'est encore à quarante.

Is there anything to lose in life? No. The only lost in life is death.

The pursuit of enlightenment is for the purpose of the world, not merely for the purpose of the individual. Practices for enlightenment must lead to action in the world.

There is no such thing as a pure extrovert or a pure introvert. Such a man would be in the lunatic asylum.

Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience.

The Lacedaemonians fought a memorable battle; they made it quite clear that they were the experts, and that they were fighting against amateurs.

If a person goes to his job with a firm determination to give of himself the best of which he is capable, that job no matter what it is takes on dignity and importance.

I like challenging people. I love pop music that can just throw you off.

I never wanted to look pretty on stage and sing about something we've all heard about before.

I don't think imitation is the highest form of flattery, I think it's annoying.