Quote

I get inhabited by a character and then you mourn it. There's a period of mourning for me, definitely.

My fellow Minnesotans join me in mourning the loss of America's 40th President and celebrating the life of a man who personified both the greatness and goodness of America.

I grew up in a house that was in a constant state of mourning.

Someday, I have no doubt, the dead from today's wars will be seen with a similar sense of sorrow at needless loss and folly as those millions of men who lie in the cemeteries of France and Belgium - and tens of millions of Americans will feel a similar revulsion for the politicians and generals who were so spendthrift with others' lives.

I don't mourn the dead. I mourn the living.

Not without hope we suffer and we mourn.

As a boy I used to go to the Chamber of Horrors at the annual fair, to look at the wax figures of Emperors and Kings, of heroes and murderers of the day. The dead now had that same unreality, which shocks without arousing pity.

One can't help but be a bit melancholy when you see how the world has changed, and I don't mean that nostalgically.

I've led this empty life for over forty years and now I can pass that heritage on and ensure that the misery will continue for at least one more generation.