Dean Acheson Quotes

Quotes about:

• I learned from the example of my father that the manner in which one endures what must be endured is more important than the thing that must be endured.

  Dean Acheson

  Father, Keys, Important

  67 Copy quote

• The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time. The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.

  Dean Acheson

  Future, Live In The Moment, One Day

  55 Copy quote

• I think Churchill is right, the only thing to be said for democracy is that there is nothing else that's any better, and therefore he used to say, Tyranny tempered by assassination, but lots of assassination. People say, If the Congress were more representative of the people it would be better. I say the Congress is too damn representative. It's just as stupid as the people are; just as uneducated, just as dumb, just as selfish.

  Dean Acheson

  Stupid, Selfish, Thinking

  47 Copy quote

• Always remember that the future comes one day at a time.

  Dean Acheson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  56 Copy quote

• Brains are no substitute for judgement.

  Dean Acheson

  Judgement, Brain, Substitutes

  12 Copy quote

• No people in history have ever survived who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies.

  Dean Acheson

  People, Enemy, Protect

  18 Copy quote

• Great Britain has lost an Empire and has not yet found a role.

  Dean Acheson

  History, Roles, Empires

  Speech at U.S. Military Academy,West Point, N.Y., 5 Dec. 1962

  35 Copy quote

• A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.

  Dean Acheson

  Funny, Accountability, Political

  Quoted in Wall Street Journal, 8 Sept. 1977

  70 Copy quote

• Like apples in a barrel infected by one rotten one, the corruption of Greece would infect Iran and all to the east. It would also carry infection to Africa through Asia Minor and Egypt, and to Europe through Italy and France, already threatened by the strongest domestic Communist parties in Western Europe. The Soviet Union was playing one of the greatest gambles in history at minimal cost. It did not need to will all the possibilities. Even one or two offered immense gains. We and we alone were in a position to break up the play.

  Dean Acheson

  War, Party, Two

  "Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department". Book by Dean Acheson, 1969.

  32 Copy quote

• Negotiation in the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree.

  Dean Acheson

  Inspirational, Party, Agree To Disagree

  53 Copy quote

• Greatness is a quality of character and is not the result of circumstances.

  Dean Acheson

  Character, Greatness, Quality

  9 Copy quote

• You can't argue with a river, it isgoing to flow.You can dam it up?put it to useful purposes?deflect it, but you can't argue with it.

  Dean Acheson

  Rivers, Flow, Purpose

  On the fruitlessness of keeping Russian fishermen from waters that should be off limits. Quoted in David S McLellan Dean Acheson: The State Department Years (1976).

  19 Copy quote

• The future comes one day at a time [so don't fear and try to solve all the worries and problems of the future today].

  Dean Acheson

  Worry, One Day At A Time, Trying

  10 Copy quote

• The great corrupter of public men is the ego - corrupter because distracter. Wealth, sensuality, power cannot hold a candle to it. Looking in the mirror distracts one's attention from the problem.

  Dean Acheson

  Men, Mirrors, Ego Problem

  "History as Literature".

  46 Copy quote

• I have a curious and apprehensive feeling as I watch JFK that he is sort of an Indian snake charmer.

  Dean Acheson

  Snakes, Feelings, Watches

  Harry S. Truman, Dean Acheson (2010). “Affection and Trust: The Personal Correspondence of Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson, 1953-1971”, p.275, Knopf

  22 Copy quote

• I have almost invariably found that charm is used as a substitute for intelligence in persons of both sexes. Thus, I have always been and will remain wary of it.

  Dean Acheson

  Sex, Charm, Used

  "Al Sharpton Goes Hollywood". www.foxnews.com. March 13, 2004.

  20 Copy quote

• The limitations imposed by democratic political practices makes it difficult to conduct our foreign affairs in the national interest.

  Dean Acheson

  Practice, Political, Affair

  Dean Acheson (1967). “Private thoughts on public affairs: a citizen looks at Congress, and a Democrat looks at his party”

  18 Copy quote

• How could the USA champion individual freedom in the world generally while denying it to an important minority in its own country.

  Dean Acheson

  Country, Usa, Champion

  "Civil Rights in the USA, 1863-1980". Book by David Paterson, Susan Willoughby, Doug Willoughby, 2001.

  12 Copy quote

• Great Britain has lost an Empire and not yet found a role. The attempt to playa separate power rolethat is, a role apart from Europe, based on a special relationship with the United States, on being the head of the Commonwealthis about to be played out. Her Majesty's Government is now attempting, wisely in my opinion, to re-enter Europe.

  Dean Acheson

  Government, Europe, Special

  1962 Speech at West Point military academy, 5 Dec. According to the New York Times, 23 Nov1969, Prime Minister Harold Wilson later countered,'Mr Acheson is a distinguished figure who has lost a State Department and not yet found himself a role'.

  14 Copy quote

• Vietnam was worse than immoral - it was a mistake.

  Dean Acheson

  Mistake, Vietnam, Immoral

  "Letter from America, 1946-2004". Book by Alistair Cooke, 2004.

  15 Copy quote

• To leave positions of great responsibility and authority is to die a little, but the time comes when that must be faced.

  Dean Acheson

  Responsibility, Littles, Authority

  6 Copy quote

• The test for aid to poor nations is therefore whether it makes them capable of being productive. If it fails to do so, it is likely to make them even poorer in the - not so very - long run.

  Dean Acheson

  Running, Long, Poor Nations

  "Present At The Creation: My Years In The State Department". Book by Dean Acheson, 1969.

  17 Copy quote

• The trouble with a free market economy is that it requires so many policemen to make it work.

  Dean Acheson

  Trouble, Economy, Free Market

  13 Copy quote

• With a nation, as with a boxer, one of the greatest assurances of safety is to add reach to power.

  Dean Acheson

  Safety, Add, Boxers

  Alluding to US bases in Europe. Quoted in James B Reston Deadline (1991).

  14 Copy quote

• No man comes out of his own memorandum of conversation looking second best.

  Dean Acheson

  Men, Second Best, Conversation

  7 Copy quote

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