“I have said what I meant and meant what I said. I have not done as well as I should like to have done, but I have done my best, frankly and forthrightly; no man can do more, and you are entitled to no less.”

— Adlai Stevenson

Speech, (3 November 1952) as quoted in "The Graceful Loser" in TIME (23 July 1965) http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,841890,00.html

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "I have said what I meant and meant what I said. I have not done as well as I should like to have done, but I have done …" by Adlai Stevenson?

Adlai Stevenson 131

mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the… 1900–1965

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

¿Y para qué debo arrepentirme de lo que he hecho, si no puedo dejar de hacer lo que hago, que es lo que he hecho?
Voces (1943)

““Well, what are you doing? What have you done?”
“I am sitting in this char,” said Poirot. “Thinking,” he added.
“Is that all?” said Mrs. Oliver.
“It is the important thing,” said Poirot.”

Agatha Christie book Third Girl

Third Girl (1966)

“What have I done for you,
England, my England?
What is there I would not do,
England, my own?”

William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) English poet, critic and editor

Source: Poems (1898), Rhymes And Rhythms, XXV

“I have done this to show what an Englishman can do.”

Robert Falcon Scott (1868–1912) Royal Navy officer and explorer

Note found on his corpse; quoted in Bruce Chatwin, What am I Doing Here?

“If I really treated business like a businessman, I wouldn’t have done what I have done — opposing China. No businessman in their right mind would do this, because you know that there will be repercussions.”

Jimmy Lai (1948) Hong Kong businessman

January 11, 2015 For Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s Rebellious Tycoon, Next Battle May Be in Court https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/12/business/media/for-jimmy-lai-hong-kongs-rebellious-tycoon-next-battle-may-be-in-court.html

“I have no more now to say. I do not know, Hastings, if what I have done is justified or not justified. No — I do not know. I do not believe that a man should take the law into his own hands… But on the other hand, I am the law!”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

Curtain - Poirot's Last Case (1975)
Context: I have no more now to say. I do not know, Hastings, if what I have done is justified or not justified. No — I do not know. I do not believe that a man should take the law into his own hands... But on the other hand, I am the law! As a young man in the Belgian police force I shot down a desperate criminal who sat on a roof and fired at people below. In a state of emergency martial law is proclaimed.

“Let them do what I have done.”

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877) American businessman, philanthropist, and tycoon

Often attributed, but without a contemporary source, as a remark on being asked to contribute to charity for the poor. See for example Commodore (2009) by Edward J. Renehan

“If I had done this, if I had said that, in the end you are always more tormented by what you didn't do than what you did, actions already performed can always be rationalized in time, the neglected deed might have changed the world.”

Damon Galgut book In a Strange Room

Source: In a Strange Room

“The fact that I am a woman has never really played into what I have done or not done. I have just been lucky that things have played out so that I could do things.”

Margrethe II of Denmark (1940) Queen of Denmark

On being a female monarch, interview with Bo Lidegaard, 'Politiken' Partially available online http://politiken.dk/indland/ECE1495013/dronningen-opgaven-som-regent-har-man-for-livet/ (01 January 2012).
Life Philosophy

“Well, I know what I have to do, so it is simple. Duty is a wonderful thing. I do not know what I should have done without duty since young Tom died. You could have painted, he told himself. Or you could have done something useful. Maybe, he thought. Duty is simpler.
This is useful, he thought. Do not think against it. It helps to get it over with. That's all we are working for. Christ knows what there is beyond that.”

Ernest Hemingway book Islands in the Stream

Pt. 3: At Sea, Section 15
Islands in the Stream (1970)

“I have said what I meant and meant what I said. I have not done as well as I should like to have done, but I have done my best, frankly and forthrightly; no man can do more, and you are entitled to no less.”

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Adlai Stevenson 131

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