Jacob K. Javits

“Politicians are probably the most underrated people in our society.”

“I remember my own life as a small boy, son of Jewish immigrants, in a janitor's flat on Orchard and Stanton streets on the Lower East Side of New York City. My father made pants and doubled as janitor of a tenement - before he made janitoring at $30 a month, plus rooms, a career.”

“Birth and death are the most singular events we experience - and the contemplation of death, as of birth, should be a thing of beauty, not ignobility.”

“My thinking is Lincolnian rather than Jeffersonian, Teddy Rooseveltian rather than Franklin D. Rooseveltian.”

“There is no office now closed to a Jew, including the presidency.”

“I'm a politician. What I say is not holy writ.”

“When scrutiny is lacking, tyranny, corruption and man's baser qualities have a better chance of entering into the public business of any government.”

“You must remember, my own philosophy is that you don't belong only to yourself. You have an obligation to the society which protected you when you were brought into the world, which taught you, which supported you and nurtured you. You have an obligation to repay it.”

“'Business,' properly understood, is so central to every aspect of our civilization that Republicans should proudly announce that they are indeed 'the party of business.'”

“It must be understood that, as adults, we are all terminal.”