A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.

About Everett Dirksen

Everett McKinley Dirksenwas an American politician. A Republican, he represented Illinois in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

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More quotes from Everett Dirksen

When all is said and done, the real citadel of strength of any community is in the hearts and minds and desires of those who dwell there.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)

The oil can is mightier than the sword.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)

But the basic difficulty still remains: It is the expansion of Federal power, about which I wish to express my alarm. How easily we embrace such business.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)

During a political campaign everyone is concerned with what a candidate will do on this or that question if he is elected except the candidate; he’s too busy wondering what he’ll do if he isn’t elected.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)

We are becoming so accustomed to millions and billions of dollars that “thousands” has almost passed out of the dictionary.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)

There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)

I have said, with respect to authorization bills, that I do not want the Congress or the country to commit fiscal suicide on the installment plan.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)

We have been through this is biennial convulsion four or five different times over the past 10 or 12 years, and now it appears that we are going through this quiet agony all over again.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)

The mind is no match with the heart in persuasion; constitutionality is no match with compassion.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)

When a member of the House moves over to the Senate, he raises the IQ of both bodies.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)

I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.

Everett Dirksen

United States Senator (1896-1969)