Eugene McCarthy

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important.

— Eugene McCarthy

Have you ever tried to split sawdust?

— Eugene McCarthy

The two-party system has given this country the war of Lyndon Johnson, the Watergate of Nixon, and the incompetence of Carter. Saying we should keep the two-party system simply because it is working is like saying the Titanic voyage was a success because a few people survived on life-rafts.

— Eugene McCarthy

The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.

— Eugene McCarthy

It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember.

— Eugene McCarthy

Remember that the worst accidents occur in the middle of the road.

— Eugene McCarthy

There is only one thing to do — take it to the country!

— Eugene McCarthy

We do not need presidents who are bigger than the country, but rather ones who speak for it and support it.

— Eugene McCarthy

I'm kind of an accidental instrument, really, through which I hope that the judgment and the will of this nation can be expressed.

— Eugene McCarthy

The maple tree that nightBecause its time had come.

— Eugene McCarthy

Now it is certain.With the mind's winnowed learning.

— Eugene McCarthy

The glove has been thrown to the ground,A line for one word.

— Eugene McCarthy

"Broken things are powerful."The last shot from the brittle bow is truest.

— Eugene McCarthy

I have left Act I, for involutionI cannot write Act III.

— Eugene McCarthy