35+ Spiro Agnew Quotes From The Former Vice President
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The 39th Vice President of the United States, Spiro Theodore Agnew, is a figure bathed in controversy.
Agnew was born on November 9 1918 and began his career in local politics as a Democrat. Agnew later became a Republican and served as Governor of Maryland.
Richard Nixon, impressed by his tenure as governor, chose him to be his candidate for vice president. After his bribery and tax evasion came to light, he was forced to resign as Vice President of the United States. President Richard Nixon resigned soon later after the Watergate scandal. Agnew died on September 17 1996.
Vice President Agnew quotes show his penchant for alliteration—look at a quote like "pusillanimous pussyfooting," for instance. Some of these Spiro T. Agnew quotes will have you laughing while also making you think deeply. Also, do look at our Huey Long quotes and [William F. Buckley quotes].
Funny Spiro Agnew Quotes
Even his critics would agree that Spiro Agnew brought a sense of (sometimes impolitic) humor to the otherwise humorless office of Vice President of the United States.
1. "In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism. They have formed their own 4-H club—the 'hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history'."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
2."You can't hit my team in the groin and expect me to smile about it."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
3. "An intellectual is a man who doesn't know how to park a bike."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
4."Education is being redefined at the demand of the uneducated to suit the ideas of the uneducated."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
5."I apologize for lying to you. I won't deceive you except in matters of this sort."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
6."Three things have been difficult to tame: the oceans, fools, and women. We may soon be able to tame the oceans; fools and women will take a little longer."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
7."Yippies, Hippies, Yahoos, Black Panthers, lions, and tigers alike—I would swap the whole damn zoo for the kind of young Americans I saw in Vietnam."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
8."Asking Senator Fulbright's advice on foreign policy is like asking the Boston Strangler to massage your neck."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
9."McGovern couldn't carry the South if Rhett Butler were his running mate."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
10."I have often been accused of putting my foot in my mouth, but I will never put my hand in your pockets."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
11."Listening to Democrats complain about inflation is like listening to germs complain about disease."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
12."The President needs me at the White House. It's autumn, you know, and the leaves need raking."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
Spiro Agnew Famous Quotes
Some Spiro T. Agnew quotes have been pointed enough to make it to the history books.
13."A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as 'intellectuals'."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
14."I didn't say I wouldn't go into ghetto areas. I've been in many of them and to some extent I would say this; if you've seen one city slum you've seen them all."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
15."The student now goes to college to proclaim, rather than to learn."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
16."There are people in our society who should be separated and discarded."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
17."Ultraliberalism today translates into a whimpering isolationism in foreign policy, a mulish obstructionism in domestic policy, and a pusillanimous pussyfooting on the critical issue of law and order."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
18."[The student protesters] take their tactics from Castro and money from daddy."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
19."Confronted with the choice, the American people would choose the policeman's truncheon over the anarchist's bomb."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
20."The lessons of the past are ignored and obliterated in a contemporary antagonism known as the generation gap."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
21."I think it's one of the tendencies of the liberal community to feel that every person in a nation of over 200 million people can be made into a productive citizen."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
22."The criminal left belongs not in a dormitory, but in a penitentiary."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
23."Freedom of speech is useless without freedom of thought."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
24."All sport... is one of the few activities where young people can proceed along traditional avenues, where objectives are clear, where the desire to win is not only permissible, but encouraged."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
25."The United States, for all its faults, is still the greatest nation in the country."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
Spiro Agnew Quotes About The Media
Spiro Agnew is remembered as a trenchant critic of the American media. Here are some Spiro T. Agnew quotes about them.
26."A narrow and distorted image of America often emerges from the televised news. A single dramatic piece of the mosaic becomes, in the minds of millions, the entire picture."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
27."Some newspapers are fit only to line the bottom of bird cages."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
28."Some newspapers dispose of their garbage by printing it."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
29."Is it not fair and relevant to question [the media's] concentration in the hands of a tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men, elected by no one, and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by government?"
- Spiro T. Agnew.
30."The American people should be made aware of the trend toward monopolization of the great public information vehicles and the concentration of more and more power over public opinion in fewer and fewer hands."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
31."A raised eyebrow, an inflection of the voice, a caustic remark dropped in the middle of a broadcast can raise doubts in a million minds about the veracity of a public official or the wisdom of a government policy."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
32."Perhaps the place to start looking for a credibility gap is not in the offices of the government in Washington but in the studios of the networks in New York!"
- Spiro T. Agnew.
33."I am asking whether a kind of censorship already exists when the news that forty million Americans receive each night is determined by a handful of men responsible only to their corporate employers and filtered through a handful of commentators who admit to their own set of biases."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
34."Every time I criticize what I consider to be excesses or faults in the news business, I am accused of repression, and the leaders of various media professional groups wave the First Amendment as they denounce me. That happens to be my amendment, too."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
35."It does bother me, however, that the press—as a group—regards the First Amendment as its own private reserve."
- Spiro T. Agnew.
36."[The media are a] little group of men who not only enjoy a right of instant rebuttal to every presidential address but, more importantly, wield a free hand in selecting, presenting and interpreting the great issues in our nation.”
- Spiro T. Agnew.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Spiro Agnew quotes from the former Vice President of the United States then why not take a look at Howard Zinn quotes, or Wangari Maathai quotes.
Article image credit: travelview / Shutterstock.com
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Bachelor of Arts and Law specializing in Political Science and Intellectual Property Rights
Anusuya MukherjeeBachelor of Arts and Law specializing in Political Science and Intellectual Property Rights
With a wealth of international experience spanning Europe, Africa, North America, and the Middle East, Anusuya brings a unique perspective to her work as a Content Assistant and Content Updating Coordinator. She holds a law degree from India and has practiced law in India and Kuwait. Anusuya is a fan of rap music and enjoys a good cup of coffee in her free time. Currently, she is working on her novel, "Mr. Ivory Merchant".
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