Walter F. Mondale

“Pick somebody who knows what it's like to live on an average income and to deal with the problems that most Americans face. Pick somebody who's traveled this country and who will remember who put him in the White House - not to be a king but to be a public servant.”

“If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused.”

“What do we want our kids to do? Sweep up around Japanese computers?”

“Modern politics today requires a mastery of television. I've never really warmed up to television and, in fairness to television, it's never warmed up to me.”

“When I was a young man, I used to dream maybe someday I could be an alderman. Instead of that I became an attorney general, a senator, a vice president, a Democratic nominee.”

“I think we need a public, strategic, cooperative relationship with Israel.”

“Do you want to tear your life apart and get rid of everything you've known as a lifestyle? Like seeing your family? Being with your friends? A fishing trip? A hunting trip? A night's sleep?”

“There's a lot of bad consequences that flow from segregation. The kids don't do as well. We live separately. We don't learn about each other. We're all Americans. And yet, we separate based on, basically, race. And I believe it's got to stop.”

“The more the American people see the sharp differences between Mr. Reagan and me and the visions we have of our future, the better off the American people will be.”

“I will end the lawlessness that's destroying our environment. I will take polluters to court, not to lunch.”

“I earned my spurs in the civil rights movement. All my life, not for political but for religious reasons, moral reasons, that's where I've been, and I'm proud of it, and I'll always be there.”

“The view of how America speaks is reflected in our laws. And one of the laws is fair housing. It very clearly prohibits discrimination in the sale and rental of housing in America. It's been a sad fact of American life that the practice in many communities has been quite the opposite.”

“I will not lobby. I will not be an influence-type lawyer. I'm a professional lawyer.”

“The overarching problem is one of the survival of humanity in the face of the growing nuclear menace. If those bombs go off, nothing else would matter.”

“One of the phenomenons of American political life is that it all stops one day. One day, you've got 200 reporters and cameras, and everybody is hanging on you. And three days later, you're alone. And it's quite a transition.”

“I have no doubt the Japanese leadership and most Japanese see the importance of a strong U.S.-Japan relationship. I certainly have no doubt that the American view is the same.”

“President Reagan likes to say Uncle Sam is a kindly old man with a spine of steel, and that he is. But I want to see Uncle Sam as well with a mind and with a heart and with a soul and a conscience.”

“We have no right to poison, to eat up, to chew, to pollute this wonderful country of ours. We are required to save it and purify it and protect it.”

“My father was a minister, and my mother was a music teacher.”

“There's no question that history will record that I took a helluva shellacking.”