Quote #9

Bristow hasn't hit it yet. What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar. --reported comment made to a Senate clerk while Senator Joseph Bristow of Kansas was making a speech in which he repeatedly used the phrase, 'What this country needs....' Although Marshall may have spoken the words, they originated with newspaper cartoonist Kin Hubbard who had his 'Abe Martin' character say them. 1

More from Thomas R. Marshall

  1. As in his public affairs, so in his private life the American rarely prepares himself for the future. He is wholly unwilling to have anythi…
  2. An unfriendly fairy godmother presented him with a keen sense of humor. Nothing is more fatal in politics. --Colonel Edward M. House, advis…
  3. The Vice-President's Chamber is adjacent to the Senate Chamber, and so small that to survive it is necessary to keep the door open in order…
  4. I make no pretense to accuracy. I shall be quite content if the sensibilities of no one are wounded by anything I may reduce to type.
  5. In the city of Denver, while I was vice-president, a big husky policeman kept following me around until I asked him what he was doing. He s…
  6. The labor unions of Indiana proceeded to meet and resolve. They resolved in such violent and vicious language that no partisan press could …
  7. There was not one of my blood, in or out of the Union Army who was not either serving and sacrificing at home or suffering and dying among …
  8. No, there is no world-wide standard for the determination of provincialism. There is only one standard by which to judge men and women, and…

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