4 Adlai Stevenson Quotes on Perception

Adlai Stevenson quotes on perception

27. Nothing so dates a man as to decry the younger generation.

60. You will find that the truth is often unpopular and the contest between agreeable fancy and disagreeable fact is unequal. For, in the vernacular, we Americans are suckers for good news.

105. President Eisenhower continues to amaze me. He appears to be an ungainly and graceless man, but when senator Robert Taft makes a move, no matter how ridiculous, Eisenhower copies it with the skill of French mime Marcel Marceau. I haven't achieved such levels of mimicry with my own party, but I'm working on it.

109. Though Americans talk a good deal about the virtue of being serious, they generally prefer people who are solemn over people who are serious. In politics, the rare candidate who is serious, like Adlai Stevenson, is easily overwhelmed by one who is solemn, like General Eisenhower. This is probably because it is hard for most people to recognize seriousness, which is rare, especially in politics, but comfortable to endorse solemnity, which is as commonplace as jogging.

     Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.