Quotes by Charles Edison

• I want to make this perfectly clear: you can be sure that I will never be a yes-man except to my own conscience.
• It is necessary to take an active part in politics to observe how often the welfare of the party organization is put before the issues, even before the welfare of the commonwealth.
• I am confident that this legislature will rise above partisan bickering, especially after the public promises its members made last fall, and that it will demonstrate a high capacity for civil service.
• A new constitution should be more amendable. A needlessly confusing system of courts should be altered to produce an arrangement that would be simple, responsible, and less awkward.
• Our society cannot progress while our constitution stands still.
• My goal was to make New Jersey's state government a model for all other states to emulate, hopefully thereby to stem, or at least slow down, the flow of power to the federal government.
• It is my happy privilege to be able to stand here and tell you that if you elect me you will have elected a governor who has made no promises of preferment to any man or group.
• In view of our public pledges, we public officials can never again go before the public merely promising election reform. The time for promises is past.
• In physics, to be in two places at the same time would be a miracle; in politics it seems not merely normal, but natural.
• Bosses are no more inevitable in state and local governments than dictators are in national governments. They will arise and prosper, nevertheless, if true believers of democracy - citizens devoted to the democratic ideals - do not constantly oppose them.
• I want to say here and now, that I demand unshakable integrity of every State employee.
• Economics, politics, and personalities are often inseparable.
• Conscious of our many problems, I seek today to lay a foundation to our public policy. My fundamental purpose is to devote my term of office to raising the standard of public service in New Jersey.
• I would rather be respected than elected.
• Our democracy poses problems and these problems must and shall be solved by courageous leadership.
• Any man who takes a job with the idea that it is simply a springboard for something else is a chump. His attention will be more on the other things than on the job at hand and so he will fail.