“The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.”
“A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.”
“My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.”
“A beauty is a woman you notice; a charmer is one who notices you.”
“The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.”
“To act coolly, intelligently, and prudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man—and also a nation.”
“Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.”
“Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.”
“Flattery is all right so long as you don’t inhale.”
“Change is inevitable. Change for the better is a full-time job.”
“In America, anybody can be president. That’s one of the risks you take.”
“A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.”
“Let’s talk sense to the American people.”
“There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody.”
“The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.”
“It is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.”
“Power corrupts, but lack of power corrupts absolutely.”
“Every age needs men who will redeem the time by living with a vision of the things that are to be.”
“Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction.”
“Nature is indifferent to the survival of the human species, including Americans.”
“Laws are never as effective as habits.”
“We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil.”
“On this shrunken globe, men can no longer live as strangers.”
“There is a New America every morning when we wake up. It is upon us whether we will it or not.”
“Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.”
“True patriotism isn’t cheap. It’s about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.”
“Understanding human needs is half the job of meeting them.”
“Peace is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age.”
“We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present.”
“We must build a new world, a far better world—one in which the eternal dignity of man is respected.”
“An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff.”
“All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.”
“The human race has improved everything except the human race.”
“To understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty.”
“If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us.”
“Let us talk sense to the American people.”
“Freedom rings where opinions clash.”
“The greater the loyalty of a group toward the group, the greater the motivation among the members.”
“The whole basis of the United Nations is the right of all nations.”
“The object of the war is to fight as few battles as possible, with the greatest result.”
“I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.”
“We must never neglect the essential role of American influence in promoting a more secure and just world.”
“The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step.”
“Every man’s life is a plan of God.”
“There is no evil in the atom; only in men’s souls.”
“Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”
“The time to stop a revolution is at the beginning, not the end.”
“We should not mistake actions and words as facts and evidence.”
“The essence of statesmanship is not a rigid adherence to the past, but a prudent and probing concern for the future.”
“After four years at the United Nations I sometimes yearn for the peace and tranquillity of a political convention.”
“When an American says he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills.”
“I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.”
“Sometimes the world is so beautiful, it makes you want to cry.”
“There is no substitute for a militant freedom.”
“A statesman is a politician who has been dead 10 or 15 years.”
“Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice.”
“I can think of nothing more boring for the American people than to have to sit in their living rooms for a whole half hour looking at my face on their television screens.”
“The United States is like the guy at the party who gives cocaine to everyone and still nobody likes him.”
“To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.”
“Patriotism springs from love of the nation’s past.”
“We can be slow as well as quick to learn that broad human concerns are not confined to narrow boundaries.”
“A diplomat’s life is made up of three ingredients: protocol, Geritol, and alcohol.”
“If we don’t change our direction, we’re likely to end up where we’re headed.”
“I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat.”
“The United Nations is an organization that is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence.”
“It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.”
“There are no rules in a game of survival.”
“The whole notion of loyalty in international affairs is purely subjective.”
“For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”
“In quiet places, reason abounds.”