Jesse Helms famous quotes

Compromise, hell! That's what has happened to us all down the line -- and that's the very cause of our woes. If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?
-- Jesse Helms

#Believe #Lines #Woe

Why build a zoo when we can just put up a fence around Chapel Hill?
-- Jesse Helms

#Zoos #Hills #Fence

The Lord did not make me impossible of error. All I've had to offer you is the total dedication in serving you as best I know how. And I've always leveled with you, and always will, knowing full well that everyone will not agree with me.
-- Jesse Helms

#Dedication #Errors #Knowing

This bill attempts to make sure that President Clinton is not allowed to do by Executive Order what Congress has declined to enact in the past two congressional sessions namely, to treat homosexuals as a special class protected under various titles of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
-- Jesse Helms

#Past #Rights #Order

What I am suggesting is hard work and it can be slow work, but the rewards are well worth it.
-- Jesse Helms

#Hard Work #Rewards #Wells

We can live our own lives in a way that does not bring reproach on the principles we claim to support.
-- Jesse Helms

#Support #Principles #Doe

There was no Congressional Club for my first campaign. There was no organized state group of Young Republicans, but there was a dedicated core of young people who volunteered to do anything my campaign needed.
-- Jesse Helms

#People #Groups #Campaigns

We have to be a state where business is welcome and jobs are created. We have to demand value for what is spent and we need to continue to resist a lottery.
-- Jesse Helms

#Jobs #Needs #Demand

The challenge is always before us. Whenever we lose sight of the principles that mattered to our founders we run into trouble.
-- Jesse Helms

#Running #Sight #Challenges

Such schemes take money from people who can least afford to spend it to support an unneeded bureaucracy that eats money people thought they were providing for education.
-- Jesse Helms

#People #Support #Schemes

I do not intend to allow the Senate to rubber-stamp the president's plan to reward the Chinese Communists.
-- Jesse Helms

#Chinese #President #Rubber

Democracy used to be a good thing, but now it has gotten into the wrong hands.
-- Jesse Helms

#Hands #Democracy #Good Things

To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn't have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing.
-- Jesse Helms

#Fashion #Thinking #Dancing

I've been portrayed as a caveman by some. That's not true. I'm a conservative progressive, and that means I think all men are equal, be they slants, beaners, or niggers.
-- Jesse Helms

#Mean #Men #Thinking

They should ask their parents if it would be all right for their son or daughter to marry a Negro.
-- Jesse Helms

#Daughter #Son #Parent

Your tax dollars are being used to pay for grade school classes that teach our children that CANNIBALISM, WIFE-SWAPPING, and the MURDER of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior.
-- Jesse Helms

#Children #School #Elderly

The New York Times and Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves. Just about every person down there is a homosexual or lesbian.
-- Jesse Helms

#New York #Homosexual #Persons

White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races.
-- Jesse Helms

#Daughter #Race #White

All I know is that D'Aubuisson is a free enterprise man and deeply religious.
-- Jesse Helms

#Religious #Men #Enterprise

Homosexuals are weak, morally sick wretches.
-- Jesse Helms

#Sick #Weak #Homosexual

Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a bodyguard.
-- Jesse Helms

#Watches #Clinton #Bodyguard

I want our young people to believe as we did that there is no goal too high to reach if they are willing to work.
-- Jesse Helms

#Believe #People #Goal

I have tried at every point to seek God's wisdom on the decisions I made, and I made it my business to speak up on behalf of the things God tells us are important to Him.
-- Jesse Helms

#Decision #Important #Speak

America must be the moral leader. It is not enough to have power. Power must be used to protect freedom and give all people hope for the opportunity to see the fruit of their own labor.
-- Jesse Helms

#Opportunity #America #People

I worked in the media from the late 30's through the early 70's. Politics in general became more liberal both nationally and within the state as the years passed.
-- Jesse Helms

#Media #Years #States

The interests of the United States are better served by demanding reform and seeing that reform takes place than by removing our influence from the UN.
-- Jesse Helms

#United States #Reform #Influence

Conservatism is a hard choice for a society that has become accustomed to big government and big entitlements promoted by liberals.
-- Jesse Helms

#Government #Choices #Entitlement

The big secret to winning elections is to get more votes than your opponent. My friend Representative Robin Hayes is a good example to study.
-- Jesse Helms

#Winning #Secret #Opponents

It still surprises me when I find something in any North Carolina newspaper that isn't mad at me about something.
-- Jesse Helms

#Mad #North Carolina #Surprise

This is an area where North Carolina does excel. I have known more colorful North Carolina political figures than I have colorless ones.
-- Jesse Helms

#Political #North Carolina #Doe

If God had wanted us to use the metric system, Jesus would have had 10 apostles.
-- Jesse Helms

#Jesus #Use #Metrics

I don't care what the New York Times says about me, and no one I care about cares what the New York Times says about me.
-- Jesse Helms

#New York #America #World

I was with some Vietnamese recently, and some of them were smoking two cigarettes at the same time. That's the kind of customers we need!
-- Jesse Helms

#Two #Smoking #Needs

I want our government to encourage and protect freedom as well as our traditions of faith and family.
-- Jesse Helms

#Encouragement #Government #Want

It may surprise people to know that I advocate the reform of the United Nations, not its abolishment.
-- Jesse Helms

#People #Reform #May

That is why I fought against abortion and that is why if I were still in the Senate I would be doing everything I could to defend the sanctity of marriage.
-- Jesse Helms

#Abortion #Would Be #Sanctity

We are now considering legislation based on statistics that include name-calling at public rallies as crimes. Are we going on to the school yards of this country and when two kids get angry with each other and call each other names -- what are we going to do, cart them over to the reformatory or add them to the list of 'hate crimes' perpetrators? This is ridiculous.
-- Jesse Helms

#Country #Hate #School

I became a Republican when a very wise young lady asked me how I could remain a Democrat when I didn't agree with what they stood for and did agree with what the Republicans supported.
-- Jesse Helms

#Wise #Republican #Young

It has become more acceptable to describe yourself as a conservative, but not everyone who uses that term about themselves really is truly conservative.
-- Jesse Helms

#Being Yourself #Use #Conservative

The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights.
-- Jesse Helms

#Men #Rights #Forever

If you want to call me a bigot, fine.
-- Jesse Helms

#Want #Fine #Call Me

Our constituency aren't the type of people to be on the Internet.
-- Jesse Helms

#People #Politics #Internet

It's their deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct that is responsible for the disease
-- Jesse Helms

#Disease #Responsible #Disgusting