Daniel Patrick Moynihan Quotes

American - Politician | March 16, 1927 - March 26, 2003

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

OpinionFactsEveryoneOwnEntitled

The richest inheritance any child can have is a stable, loving, disciplined family life.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

LifeFamilyChildLovingInheritance

The steady expansion of welfare programs can be taken as a measure of the steady disintegration of the Negro family structure over the past generation in the United States.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

FamilyPastGenerationMeasureOver

The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

GovernmentYouSingleRareEncounter

Citizen participation is a device whereby public officials induce nonpublic individuals to act in a way the officials desire.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

DesireCitizenWayParticipationAct

It's always been a subtext of our secular optimism that you solve the economic problem, and all other things sort of take care of themselves. Well, we seem to be doing well on the economic side - we are doing very well - and the other things are not solving - they're compounding.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

OptimismCareTake CareProblemYou

We must not let ourselves be seen as rushing around the world looking for arguments... Nor should we let ourselves be seen as ignoring allies, disillusioning friends, thinking only of ourselves in the most narrow terms. That is not how we survived the 20th century. Nor will it serve in the 21st.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

WorldLookingThinkingFriendsWill

Welfare became a term of opprobrium - a contentious, often vindictive area of political conflict in which liberals and conservatives clashed and children were lost sight of.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

ChildrenConflictPoliticalLost

The Democrats have prevailed because, at heart, we have embodied a great idea, which is that an elected government can be the instrument of the common purpose of a free people; that government can embrace great causes and do great things.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

HeartGreatPurposeGovernmentFree

Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government agencies to do good.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

LifeGoodGovernmentHealthyBirth

The liberal left can be as rigid and destructive as any force in American life.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

LifeAmericanForceLiberalLeft

We have to ask if it is once again the summer of 1914. Small acts of terror in the Middle East, in South Asia, could lead to cataclysm as they did in Sarajevo.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

SmallSummerAskLeadMiddleAgain

123Next pageLast

Related Authors

Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Daniel Patrick Moynihan quotes