James F. Byrnes Quotes

• Power intoxicates men. It is never voluntarily surrendered. It must be taken from them.

  James F. Byrnes

  Taken, Men

  47 Copy quote

• The world so clamors for action that men and women devote little time to thinking. Many believe in secondhand thinking. They find it easier to ascertain and adopt the thoughts of others than to think for themselves.

  James F. Byrnes

  Believe, Men, Thinking

  17 Copy quote

• Friendship without self-interest is one of the rare and beautiful things of life.

  James F. Byrnes

  Friendship, Beautiful, Self

  94 Copy quote

• Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death.

  James F. Byrnes

  Life, Happiness, Death

  29 Copy quote

• The nearest approach to immortality on earth is a government bureau.

  James F. Byrnes

  Government, Earth, Immortality

  James F. Byrnes (1947). “Spealing Frankly”

  7 Copy quote

• Offering hope to the German people, I said that freedom from militarism would give them the opportunity, if they would but seize it, "to apply their great energies and abilities to the works of peace — and in time to take an honorable place among the members of the United Nations.

  James F. Byrnes

  Opportunity, People, Giving

  "All In One Lifetime".

  8 Copy quote

• Most of the victims of Nazi aggression were before the war less well off than Germany. They should not be expected by Germany to bear, unaided, the major costs of Nazi aggression.

  James F. Byrnes

  War, Germany, Cost

  8 Copy quote

• The American people want peace. They have long since ceased to talk of a hard or a soft peace for Germany.

  James F. Byrnes

  Long, People, Germany

  7 Copy quote

• German militarism and Nazism have devastated twice in our generation the lands of German neighbors.

  James F. Byrnes

  Workout, Land, Our Generation

  15 Copy quote

• What we want is a lasting peace. We will oppose soft measures which invite the breaking of the peace.

  James F. Byrnes

  Promise, Want, Lasting

  7 Copy quote

• The conditions which now exist in Germany make it impossible for industrial production to reach the levels which the occupying powers agreed were essential for a minimum German peacetime economy.

  James F. Byrnes

  Essentials, Germany, Levels

  8 Copy quote

• We have learned that peace and well-being are indivisible and that our peace and well-being cannot be purchased at the price of peace or the well-being of any other country.

  James F. Byrnes

  Country, Well Being, Wells

  4 Copy quote

• Provision was also made for the distribution of Germany's foreign assets among the Allies.

  James F. Byrnes

  Allies, Germany, Assets

  8 Copy quote

• The carrying out of the Potsdam Agreement has, however, been obstructed by the failure of the Allied Control Council to take the necessary steps to enable the German economy to function as an economic unit.

  James F. Byrnes

  Agreement, Steps, Economic

  67 Copy quote

• The German people were not denied, however, the possibility of improving their lot by hard work over the years. Industrial growth and progress were not denied them.

  James F. Byrnes

  Hard Work, Years, People

  4 Copy quote

• The working out of a balanced economy throughout Germany to provide the necessary means to pay for approved imports has not been accomplished, although that too is expressly required by the Potsdam Agreement.

  James F. Byrnes

  Mean, Agreement, Work Out

  62 Copy quote

• I hope that the German people will never again make the mistake of believing that because the American people are peace-loving, they will sit back hoping for peace if any nation uses force or the threat of force to acquire dominion over other peoples and other governments.

  James F. Byrnes

  Mistake, Believe, Government

  James F. Byrnes (1947). “Speaking Frankl.y”

  7 Copy quote

• It is not in the interest of the German people or in the interest of world peace that Germany should become a pawn or a partner in a military struggle for power between the East and the West.

  James F. Byrnes

  Military, Struggle, People

  James F. Byrnes (1947). “Speaking Frankl.y”

  6 Copy quote

• I have come to Germany to learn at first hand the problems involved in the reconstruction of Germany and to discuss with our representatives the views of the United States Government as to some of the problems confronting us.

  James F. Byrnes

  Government, Views, Hands

  7 Copy quote

• That was the principle of reparations to which President Truman agreed at Potsdam. And the United States will not agree to the taking from Germany of greater reparations than was provided by the Potsdam Agreement.

  James F. Byrnes

  Agreement, President, Principles

  66 Copy quote

• Important as economic unification is for the recovery of Germany and of Europe, the German people must recognize that the basic cause of their suffering and distress is the war which the Nazi dictatorship brought upon the world.

  James F. Byrnes

  War, Recovery, Europe

  11 Copy quote

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