Joseph Cannon Quotes

United States, Politician
May 7, 1836 – November, 12, 1926.

Joseph Gurney Cannon was a United States politician from Illinois and leader of the Republican Party. Cannon served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1903 to 1911, and many consider him to be the most dominant Speaker in United States history, with such control over the House that he could often control debate.

I would rather quit public life at seventy, and quit it forever, than to retain public life at a sacrifice to my own self-respect. I will not vote for any law which will make fair for me and foul for another. The blacklist is the most cruel form of oppression ever devised by man for the infliction of suffering upon his weaker fellows.

Joseph Cannon
A majority can do anything.

Joseph Cannon
- Anything
- Majority
Nearly all legislation is the result of compromise.

Joseph Cannon
You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and you can't change human nature from intelligent self-interest into pure idealism—not in this life; and if you could, what would be left for paradise?

Joseph Cannon
- Nature
- Change
- Idealism