Molly Ivins Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• How the American right managed to convince itself that the programs to alleviate poverty are responsible for the consequences of poverty will someday be studied as a notorious mass illusion.

  Molly Ivins

  Party, Government, Political

  Molly Ivins (2010). “You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You”, p.18, Vintage

  76 Copy quote

• The first rule of holes: When you're in one stop digging.

  Molly Ivins

  Political, Digging, Politics

  19 Copy quote

• Nice is a pallid virtue. Not like honesty or courage or perseverance. On the other hand, in a nation notably lacking in civility, there is much to be said for nice.

  Molly Ivins

  Perseverance, Honesty, Nice

  50 Copy quote

• In Texas, we do not hold high expectations for the [governor's] office; it's mostly been occupied by crooks, dorks and the comatose.

  Molly Ivins

  Texas, Expectations, Office

  59 Copy quote

• Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.

  Molly Ivins

  Heart, Giving, Salary

  "Labor’s Fight Is OUR Fight" by Dave Johnson, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 29, 2012.

  97 Copy quote

• The impulse to make ourselves safer by making ourselves less free is an old one ... When we are badly frightened, we think we can make ourselves safer by sacrificing some of our liberties. We did it during the McCarthy era out of fear of communism. Less liberty is regularly proposed as a solution to crime, to pornography, to illegal immigration, to abortion, to all kinds of threats.

  Molly Ivins

  Sacrifice, Thinking, Rights

  "'Evil Cowards' Threaten Freedom" by Molly Ivins, www.sfgate.com. April 25, 1995.

  74 Copy quote

• Personally, I think government is a tool, like a hammer. You can use a hammer to build or you can use a hammer to destroy; there is nothing intrinsically good or evil about the hammer itself. It is the purposes to which it is put and the skill with which it is used that determine whether the hammer's work is good or bad.

  Molly Ivins

  Thinking, Government, Skills

  Molly Ivins (2010). “You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You”, p.22, Vintage

  39 Copy quote

• I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults.

  Molly Ivins

  Texas, Adults, States

  53 Copy quote

• What stuns me most about contemporary politics is not even that the system has been so badly corrupted by money. It is that so few people get the connection between their lives and what the bozos do in Washington and our state capitols.

  Molly Ivins

  People, Connections, States

  60 Copy quote

• Age has given me what I was looking for my entire life - it gave me me. It provided me the time and experience and failures and triumphs and friends who helped me step into the shape that had been waiting for me all my life.

  Molly Ivins

  Waiting, Age, Triumph

  39 Copy quote

• Every two years, one of the most hotly contested elections in Texas is the poll taken among members of the capitol press corps to determine who are actually the ten stupidest members of the Legislature. Two years ago, there were thirty-seven official nominees and several write-ins.

  Molly Ivins

  Taken, Writing, Years

  Molly Ivins (2010). “Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?”, p.9, Vintage

  17 Copy quote

• The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.

  Molly Ivins

  Confusion, Democracy, Beloved

  14 Copy quote

• It's hard to argue against cynics - they always sound smarter than optimists because they have so much evidence on their side.

  Molly Ivins

  Sound, Sides, Arguing

  19 Copy quote

• Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel -- it's vulgar.

  Molly Ivins

  Powerful, Weapons, Satire

  "The Mouth of Texas". People Weekly, December 9, 1991.

  90 Copy quote

• Good thing we've still got politics in Texas - finest form of free entertainment ever invented.

  Molly Ivins

  Texas, Political, Politics

  Molly Ivins (2010). “Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?”, p.43, Vintage

  27 Copy quote

• On Bill Clinton: "If left to my own devices, I'd spend all my time pointing out that he's weaker than bus-station chili. But the man is so constantly subjected to such hideous and unfair abuse that I wind up standing up for him on the general principle that some fairness should be applied. Besides, no one but a fool or a Republican ever took him for a liberal.

  Molly Ivins

  Men, Wind, Abuse

  22 Copy quote

• Either we figure out how to keep corporate cash out of the political system or we lose the democracy.

  Molly Ivins

  Political, Democracy, Cash

  "Molly Ivins, In Memoriam" by Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. February 1, 2007.

  11 Copy quote

• What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority.

  Molly Ivins

  Respect, Needs, Too Much

  13 Copy quote

• Conservatives are fond of pointing out there are problems in this world can't be solved by throwing money at them. There are even more that can't be solved by dropping bombs on them.

  Molly Ivins

  Bombs, World, Problem

  20 Copy quote

• I think most of us become nicer as we get older, less judgmental, less full of certitude; life tends to knock a few corners of us as we go through. Cancer, divorce, teenagers, and other plagues make us give up on expecting ourselves - or life - to be perfect, which is a real relief.

  Molly Ivins

  Giving Up, Real, Cancer

  17 Copy quote

• We've had trickle down economics in the country for ten years now, and most of us aren't even damp yet.

  Molly Ivins

  Country, Years, Economics

  29 Copy quote

• Many a time freedom has been rolled back - and always for the same sorry reason: fear.

  Molly Ivins

  Sorry, Reason, Has Beens

  "The Fun’s in the Fight" by Molly Ivins, www.motherjones.com. May/June 1993.

  16 Copy quote

• Economist Frederick Thayer has studied the history of our balanced-budget crusades and has come up with some depressing statistics. We have had six major depressions in our history (1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893 and 1929); all six of them followed sustained periods of reducing the national debt. We have had almost chronic deficits since the 1930s, and there has been no depression since then - the longest crash-free period in our history.

  Molly Ivins

  Depressing, Debt, Statistics

  13 Copy quote

• I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle.

  Molly Ivins

  Hurt, Air, Ankles

  Molly Ivins (2004). “Who Let the Dogs In?: Incredible Political Animals I Have Known”, p.303, Random House

  22 Copy quote

• Most of us think of government as them. Yet government isn't Them: It's us.

  Molly Ivins

  Thinking, Government

  24 Copy quote

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