Henry Fountain Ashurst

"Whoever in his public services is handcuffed and shackled by the vice of consistency will be a man not free to act as various questions come before him from time to time; he will be a statesman locked…"

"No man is fit to be a Senator... unless he is willing to surrender his political life for great principle."

"… I shall not waste any time on such miserable twaddle as to say that I ought to have been elected. … It is the undoubted right of the people to change their servants, and to remove one and displace h…"

"I suffer from cacoethes loquendi, a mania or itch for talking, and from vanity . . . and morbidity, and, as is obvious to everyone who knows me, an inborn, an inveterate flair for histrionics. … I am …"

"You send me to Washington to represent you in the senate. But you do not send me there because you are interested in grave questions of national or international policy. When I come back to Arizona, y…"

"I could throw 56-pound words clear across the Grand Canyon. As a matter of course, I went into politics."

"There has never been superadded to these vices of mine the withering, embalming vice of consistency."

"It is still an open question as to whether mankind or insects shall ultimately inherit the earth. It is my opinion that mankind … has about a 50-50 chance...."