Al Smith Quotes

• I can think of no greater disaster to this country than to have the voters of it divide upon religious lines.

  Al Smith

  Country, Religious, Thinking

  14 Copy quote

• The American people never carry an umbrella. They prepare to walk in eternal sunshine.

  Al Smith

  Sunshine, Journey, Hiking

  16 Copy quote

• It is a confession of the weakness of our own faith in the righteousness of our cause when we attempt to suppress by law those who do not agree with us.

  Al Smith

  Law, Weakness, Causes

  16 Copy quote

• All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

  Al Smith

  Democracy

  Speech in Albany, 27 June 1933, in New York Times 28 June 1933

  9 Copy quote

• Be sincere. Be simple in words, manners, and gestures. Amuse as well as instruct. If you can make a man laugh, you can make him think and make him like and believe you.

  Al Smith

  Sports, Believe, Simple

  18 Copy quote

• I believe in absolute freedom of conscience for all men and equality of all churches, all sects and all beliefs before the law as a matter of right and not as a matter of favor. I believe in the absolute separation of church and state and in the strict enforcement of the Constitution that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof I believe that no tribunal of any church has any power to make any decree of any force in the law of the land, other than to establish the status of its own communicants within its own church.

  Al Smith

  Believe, Exercise, Men

  14 Copy quote

• If a man must make himself appear cheerful; he must know why he is miserable.

  Al Smith

  Men, Hypocrisy, Cheerful

  12 Copy quote

• It is the right of our people to organize to oppose any law and any part of the Constitution with which they are not in sympathy.

  Al Smith

  Sympathy, Law, People

  10 Copy quote

• I believe in the absolute separation of church and state and in the strict enforcement of the Constitution that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

  Al Smith

  Believe, Exercise, Law

  13 Copy quote

• Sin is like a journey, it begins with one step.

  Al Smith

  Journey, Steps, Sin

  8 Copy quote

• The thing we have to fear in this country, to my way of thinking, is the influence of the organized minorities, because somehow or other the great majority does not seem to organize. They seem to feel that they are going to be effective because of their own strength, but they give no expression of it.

  Al Smith

  Country, Thinking, Expression

  7 Copy quote

• The Brooklyn Bridge and I grew up together.

  Al Smith

  Brooklyn Bridge, Bridges, Together

  4 Copy quote

• I believe in the support of the public school as one of the cornerstones of American liberty. I believe in the right of every parent to choose whether his child shall be educated in the public school or in a religious school supported by those of his own faith.

  Al Smith

  Religious, Children, Believe

  7 Copy quote

• No sane local official who has hung up an empty stocking over the municipal fireplace is going to shoot Santa Claus just before a hard Christmas.

  Al Smith

  Christmas, Sea, Santa

  Quoted in New Outlook, Dec. 1933

  86 Copy quote

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