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Change Is The Law Of Life And Of Relations Between Nations. When Two Great Peoples Such As Ours, Energetic And Optimistic, Live Side By Side In All The Diversity That Freedom Offers, Change Is Rapid And Brings In Its Wake Problems, Sometimes Frictions.

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Change Is The Law

Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Change Is The Law Of Life And Of Relations Between Nations. When Two Great Peoples Such As Ours, Energetic And Optimistic, Live Side By Side In All The Diversity That Freedom Offers, Change Is Rapid And Brings In Its Wake Problems, Sometimes Frictions.

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More From Dwight D. Eisenhower

Pull The String, And It Will Follow Wherever You Wish. Push It, And It Will Go Nowhere At All.

Make It A Practice To Avoid Hating Anyone. If Someone's Been Guilty Of Despicable Actions, Especially Toward Me, I Try To Forget Him. I Used To Follow A Practice - Somewhat Contrived, I Admit - To Write The Man's Name On A Piece Of Scrap Paper, Drop It Into The Lowest Drawer Of My Desk, And Say To Myself: "that Finishes The Incident, And So Far As I'm Concerned, That Fellow." The Drawer Became Over The Years A Sort Of Private Wastebasket For Crumbled-up Spite And Discarded Personalities.

The Spirit Of Man Is More Important Than Mere Physical Strength, And The Spiritual Fiber Of A Nation Than Its Wealth. The Bible Is Endorsed By The Ages. Our Civilization Is Built Upon Its Words. In No Other Book Is There Such A Collection Of Inspired Wisdom, Reality, And Hope.

What The Church Should Be Telling The Worker Is That The First Demand Religion Makes On Him Is That He Should Be A Good Workman. If He Is A Carpenter He Should Be A Competent Carpenter. Church By All Means On Sundays-but What Is The Use Of Church If At The Very Center Of Life A Man Defrauds His Neighbor And Insults God By Poor Craftsmanship.

I Firmly Believe That The Future Of Civilization Is Absolutely Dependent Upon Finding Some Way Of Resolving International Differences Without Resorting To War.

A Good Teacher Is One Who Can Understand Those Who Are Not Very Good At Explaining, And Explain To Those Who Are Not Very Good At Understanding.

Compromise Is Like The Middle Of The Road; Always Safer To Walk On Than The Edges.

We Look Upon This Shaken Earth, And We Declare Our Firm And Fixed Purpose - The Building Of A Peace With Justice In A World Where Moral Law Prevails.

Memory Should Be The Starting Point Of The Present.

Our Real Problem, Then, Is Not Our Strength Today; It Is Rather The Vital Necessity Of Action Today To Ensure Our Strength Tomorrow.

No Easy Problems Ever Come To The President Of The United States. If They Are Easy To Solve, Someone Else Has Solved Them.

The Next Time You See One Of Those Squirrels Go Near My Putting Green, Take A Gun And Shoot It

Life Is Certainly Only Worthwhile As It Represents Struggle For Worthy Causes. There Is No Struggle In Perfect Security. I Am Quite Certain That The Human Being Could Not Continue To Exist If He Or She Had Perfect Security.

We Have Got To Fight It [communism] With Something Better, Not Try To Conceal The Thinking Of Our Own People. They Are Part Of America. And Even If They Think Ideas That Are Contrary To Ours, Their Right To Say Them, Their Right To Record Them, And Their Right To Have Them At Places Where They Are Accessible To Others Is Unquestioned, Or It Isn't America.

When People Speak To You About A Preventive War, You Tell Them To Go And Fight It. After My Experience, I Have Come To Hate War.

I Have Found Out In Later Years That We Were Very Poor, But The Glory Of America Is That We Didn't Know It Then.

Not Making The Baseball Team At West Point Was One Of The Greatest Disappointments Of My Life, Maybe My Greatest.

Never Lose Your Temper, Except Intentionally.

The Middle Of The Road Is All Of The Usable Surface. The Extremes, Right And Left, Are In The Gutters.

Without God, There Would Be No American Form Of Government, Nor An American Way Of Life.

Disorganization Can Scarcely Fail To Result In Efficiency.

Disorganization

Farming Looks Mighty Easy When Your Plow Is A Pencil And You're A Thousand Miles From The Corn Field.

Not Only Do I Have A Great Love For The Game Of Golf - No Matter How Badly I Play It - But I Have Also The Belief That Through Every Kind Of Meeting, Through Every Kind Of Activity To Which We Can Bring Together More Often And More Intimately Peoples Of Our Several Countries, By That Measure We Will Do Something To Solve The Difficulties And The Tensions That This Poor Old World Seems Nowadays To So Much Endure.

The Winning Of War - The Effectiveness In Such Things - Is In The Heart, In The Determination, In The Faith. It Is In Our Beliefs In Our Country, In Our God, Everything That Goes To Make Up America.

The Only Answer To A Regime That Wages Total Cold War Is To Wage Total Peace.

Don't Join The Book Burners!

As We Peer Into Society's Future, We -- You And I, And Our Government -- Must Avoid The Impulse To Live Only For Today, Plundering For Our Own Ease And Convenience The Precious Resources Of Tomorrow. We Cannot Mortgage The Material Assets Of Our Grandchildren Without Risking The Loss Also Of Their Political And Spiritual Heritage. We Want Democracy To Survive For All Generations To Come, Not To Become The Insolvent Phantom Of Tomorrow.

Against The Dark Background Of The Atomic Bomb, The United States Does Not Wish Merely To Present Strength, But Also The Desire And The Hope For Peace.

My Ambition In The Army Was To Make Everybody I Worked For Regretful When I Was Ordered To Other Duty.

There Has Been A Vigorous Acceleration Of Health, Resource And Education Programs Designed To Advance The Role Of The American Indian In Our Society. Last Fall, For Example, 91 Percent Of The Indian Children Between The Ages Of 6 And 18 On Reservations Were Enrolled In School. This Is A Rise Of 12 Percent Since 1953.

Organizations Cannot Make A Genius Out Of An Incompetent. On The Other Hand, Disorganization Can Scarcely Fail To Result In Efficiency.

I Have Full Confidence In Your Courage And Devotion To Duty And Skill In Battle. We Will Accept Nothing Less Than Full Victory! Good Luck! And Let Us Beseech The Blessing Of Almighty God Upon This Great And Noble Undertaking.

I Despise All Adjectives That Try To Describe People As Liberal Or Conservative, Rightist Or Leftist, As Long As They Stay In The Useful Part Of The Road.

There Is Very Little That Our Government Or Any Government Can Do To Plant The Seeds Of International Understanding In The Hearts And Minds Of People Around The World. If People By The Millions Can Reach Out Their Hands In Friendship And Communicate Directly Warmth, Personal Interest And Respect, It Will Be A Real Beginning In The Struggle For A Peaceful World.

Our Pleasures Were Simple - They Included Survival.

Only Our Individual Faith In Freedom Can Keep Us Free.

Humility Must Always Be The Portion Of Any Man Who Receives Acclaim Earned In The Blood Of His Followers And The Sacrifices Of His Friends.

People Talk About The Middle Of The Road As Though It Were Unacceptable. Actually, All Human Problems, Excepting Morals, Come Into The Gray Areas. Things Are Not All Black And White. There Have To Be Compromises. The Middle Of The Road Is All Of The Usable Surface. The Extremes, Right And Left, Are In The Gutters.

Black And White

The History Of Free Men Is Never Really Written By Chance But By Choice; Their Choice!

Character In Many Ways Is Everything In Leadership. It Is Made Up Of Many Things, But I Would Say Character Is Really Integrity. When You Delegate Something To A Subordinate, For Example, It Is Absolutely Your Responsibility, And He Must Understand This. You As A Leader Must Take Complete Responsibility For What The Subordinate Does. I Once Said, As A Sort Of Wisecrack, That Leadership Consists Of Nothing But Taking Responsibility For Everything That Goes Wrong And Giving Your Subordinates Credit For Everything That Goes Well.

War Is A Grim, Cruel Business, A Business Justified Only As A Means Of Sustaining The Forces Of Good Against Those Of Evil.

Disarmament, With Mutual Honor And Confidence, Is A Continuing Imperative.

Do Not Needlessly Endanger Your Lives Until I Give You The Signal.

Freedom From Fear And Injustice And Oppression Will Be Ours Only In The Measure That Men Who Value Such Freedom Are Ready To Sustain Its Possession - To Defend It Against Every Thrust From Within Or Without.

Injustice And Oppression

Peace Signifies More Than The Stilling Of Guns, Easing The Sorrow Of War. More Than Escape From Death, It Is A Way Of Life. More Than A Haven For The Weary, It Is A Hope For The Brave.

I Have No Use For Those- Regardless Of Their Political Party- Who Hold Some Foolish Dream Of Spinning The Clock Back To Days When Unorganized Labor Was A Huddled, Almost Helpless Mass.

Well, It's Hard For A Mere Man To Believe That Woman Doesn't Have Equal Rights.

We Cannot Risk Living All Our Lives Under Emergency Measures.

The Essence Of War Is Fire, Famine, And Pestilence. They Contribute To Its Outbreak; They Are Among Its Weapons; They Become Its Consequences.

We Are So Proud Of Our Guarantees Of Freedom In Thought And Speech And Worship, That, Unconsciously, We Are Guilty Of One Of The Greatest Errors That Ignorance Can Make - We Assume Our Standard Of Values Is Shared By All Other Humans In The World.

With A Full Century Of Contrary Proof In Our Possession And Despite Our Demonstrated Capacity For Cooperative Teamwork, Some Among Us Seem To Accept The Shibboleth Of An Unbridgeable Gap Between Those Who Hire And Those Who Are Employed. We Miserably Fail To Challenge The Lie That What Is Good For Management Is Necessarily Bad For Labor; That For One Side To Profit, The Other Must Be Depressed. Such Distorted Doctrine Is False And Foreign To The American Scene Where Common Ideals And Purpose Permit Us A Common Approach Toward The Common Good.

I Never Saw A Pessimistic General Win A Battle.

All Generalizations Are Inaccurate, Including This One.

Don't Join The Book Burners... Don't Be Afraid To Go In Your Library And Read Every Book.

'worry' Is A Word That I Don't Allow Myself To Use.

A Nation's Hope Of Lasting Peace Cannot Be Firmly Based Upon Any Race In Armaments But Rather Upon Just Relations And Honest Understanding With All Other Nations.

The Quest For Peace Is The Statesman's Most Exacting Duty... Practical Progress To Lasting Peace Is His Fondest Hope.

Our Forms Of Government - Though Both Cast In The Democratic Pattern - Are Greatly Different. Indeed, Sometimes It Appears That Many Of Our Misunderstandings Spring From An Imperfect Knowledge On The Part Of Both Of Us Of The Dissimilarities In Our Forms Of Government.

Beware The Military-industrial Complex.

Military Industrial Complex

... Four Other Pieces Of Equipment That Most Senior Officers Came To Regard As Among The Most Vital To Our Success In Africa And Europe Were The Bulldozer, The Jeep, The 2--ton Truck, And The C-47 Airplane. Curiously, None Of These Is Designed For Combat.

If Berlin Fell, The Us Would Lose Europe, And If Europe Fell Into The Hands Of The Soviet Union And Thus Added Its Great Industrial Plant To The Ussr's Already Great Industrial Plant, The United States Would Be Reduced To The Character Of A Garrison State If It Were To Survive At All.

Patronage Is Almost A Wicked Word. By Itself It Could Well-nigh Defeat Democracy.

There Is A Kind Of Dictatorship That Can Come About Through A Creeping Paralysis Of Thought, Readiness To Accept Paternalistic Measures By Government, And Along With Those Measures Comes A Surrender Of Our Own Responsibilities And Therefore A Surrender Of Our Own Thought Over Our Own Lives And Our Own Right To Exercise The Vote. The Free System Gives The Right To Every Citizen To Do Something For Himself. Because He Has The Right, The Opportunity Is Always There.

If All That Americans Want Is Security, They Can Go To Prison. They'll Have Enough To Eat, A Bed And A Roof Over Their Heads. But If An American Wants To Preserve His Dignity And His Equality As A Human Being, He Must Not Bow His Neck To Any Dictatorial Government.

I Get Weary Of The European Habit Of Taking Our Money, Resenting Any Slight Hint As To What They Should Do, And Then Assuming, In Addition, Full Right To Criticize Us As Bitterly As They May Desire.

I Despise People Who Go To The Gutter On Either The Right Or The Left And Hurl Rocks At Those In The Center.

When You Are In Any Contest, You Should Work As If There Were - To The Very Last Minute - A Chance To Lose It. This Is Battle, This Is Politics, This Is Anything.

The National Government Was Itself The Creature Of The States...yet Today It Is Often Made To Appear That The Creature, Frankenstein-like, Is Determined To Destroy The Creators.

If Men Can Develop Weapons That Are So Terrifying As To Make The Thought Of Global War Include Almost A Sentence For Suicide, You Would Think That Man's Intelligence And His Comprehension... Would Include Also His Ability To Find A Peaceful Solution.

Planning Is Useless... But The Process Itself Is Indispensable.

But I Noted With Real Satisfaction How Well Ex-footballers Seemed To Have Leadership Qualifications . . . I Believe That Football, Perhaps More Than Any Other Sport, Tends To Instill In Men The Feeling That Victory Comes Through Hard - Almost Slavish - Work, Team Play, Self-confidence, And An Enthusiasm That Amounts To Dedication.

The Peace We Seek, Founded Upon Decent Trust And Cooperation Among Nations, Can Be Fortified Not By Weapons Of War But By Wheat And Cotton, By Milk And Wool, By Meat And Timber, And By Rice. These Are Words That Translate Into Every Language.

The Only Way To Win World War Iii Is To Prevent It.

Help The Cubans To The Utmost Counseling His Successor While Handing Over The Reins. We Cannot Let Castro's Government Go On.

Morale Is The Greatest Single Factor In Successful Wars.

In This Way We Are Reaffirming The Transcendence Of Religious Faith In America's Heritage And Future. From This Day Forward, The Millions Of Our Schoolchildren Will Daily Proclaim In Every City And Town, Every Village And Every Rural Schoolhouse, The Dedication Of Our Nation And Our People To The Almighty. In This Way We Shall Constantly Strengthen Those Spiritual Weapons Which Forever Will Be Our Country's Most Powerful Resource In Peace And War.

We Must Achieve Both Security And Solvency. In Fact, The Foundation Of Military Strength Is Economic Strength.

No Treaty Or International Agreement Can Contravene The Constitution.

Plans Are Useless, But Planning Is Essential.

They [the Founders] Proclaimed To All The World The Revolutionary Doctrine Of The Divine Rights Of The Common Man. That Doctrine Has Ever Since Been The Heart Of The American Faith.

The World No Longer Has A Choice Between Force And Law; If Civilization Is To Survive, It Must Choose The Rule Of Law.

Why Don't You Lay The Footpaths Where The Students Want To Walk?

We Believe That Our Truly Urgent Need Is To Make Our Nation Secure, Our Economy Strong And Our Dollar Sound. For Every American This Matter Of The Sound Dollar Is Crucial. Without A Sound Dollar, Every American Family Would Face A Renewal Of Inflation, An Ever-increasing Cost Of Living, The Withering Away Of Savings And Life Insurance Policies.

Take Your Job Seriously, But Not Yourself

The Peace We Seek And Need Means Much More Than Mere Absence Of War. It Means The Acceptance Of Law, And The Fostering Of Justice, In All The World.

An Atheist Is A Man Who Watches A Notre Dame - Southern Methodist University Game And Doesn't Care Who Wins.

Any Time We Deny Any Citizen The Full Exercise Of His Constitutional Rights, We Are Weakening Our Own Claim To Them.

Now, The Education Of Our Children Is Of National Concern, And If They Are Not Educated Properly, It Is A National Calamity.

We Need An Adequate Defense, But Every Arms Dollar We Spend Above Adequacy Has A Long-term Weakening Effect Upon The Nation And Its Security.

One Small Ball In The Air. I Wouldn't Believe That At This Moment You Have To Fear The Intelligence Aspects Of This.

Since The Advent Of Nuclear Weapons, It Seems Clear That There Is No Longer Any Alternative To Peace, If There Is To Be A Happy And Well World.

You Don't Lead By Hitting People Over The Head - That's Assault, Not Leadership.

The Eyes Of The World Are Upon You. The Hopes And Prayers Of Liberty-loving People Everywhere March With You.

Hope Spurs Humans Everywhere To Work Harder To Endure More Now That The Future May Be Better.

Having Established As Our Goals A Lasting World Peace With Justice And The Security Of Freedom On This Earth, We Must Be Prepared To Make Whatever Sacrifices Are Demanded As We Pursue This Path To Its End.

Unless Each Day Can Be Looked Back Upon By An Individual As One In Which He Has Had Some Fun, Some Joy, Some Real Satisfaction, That Day Is A Loss.

Inflation Is Not A Robin Hood, Taking From The Rich To Give To The Poor. Rather, It Deals Most Cruelly With Those Who Can Least Protect Themselves. It Strikes Hardest Those Millions Of Our Citizens Whose Incomes Do Not Quickly Rise With The Cost Of Living. When Prices Soar, The Pensioner And The Widow See Their Security Undermined, The Man Of Thrift Sees His Savings Melt Away; The White Collar Worker, The Minister, And The Teacher See Their Standards Of Living Dragged Down.

There Are A Number Of Things Wrong With Washington. One Of Them Is That Everyone Is Too Far From Home.

Remember That It Is Not By A Tyrant's Words, But Only By His Deeds That We Can Know Him.

I Deplore The Need Or The Use Of Troops Anywhere To Get American Citizens To Obey The Orders Of Constituted Courts.

As Quickly As You Start Spending Federal Money In Large Amounts, It Looks Like Free Money.

The Stop-watch Of History Is Running. The Race Is On . . .

You Have A Row Of Dominoes Set Up; You Knock Over The First One, And What Will Happen To The Last One Is That It Will Go Over Very Quickly.

Yet, In Holding Scientific Research And Discovery In Respect, As We Should, We Must Also Be Alert To The Equal And Opposite Danger That Public Policy Could Itself Become The Captive Of A Scientific-technological Elite.

That Was Not The Biggest Battle That Ever Was, But For Me It Always Typified One Thing; The Dash, The Ingenuity, The Readiness At The First Opportunity That Characterizes The American Soldier.

We Face A Hostile Ideology Global In Scope, Atheistic In Character, Ruthless In Purpose And Insidious In Method.

How Far Have We Come In Man's Long Pilgrimage From Darkness Toward Light? Are We Nearing The Light-a Day Of Freedom And Of Peace For All Mankind? Or Are The Shadows Of Another Night Closing In Upon Us?

Never Be More Scared Of The Enemy Than You Think He Is Of You.

The Things I Saw Beggar Description ... The Visual Evidence And The Verbal Testimony Of Starvation, Cruelty, And Bestiality Were So Overpowering As To Leave Me A Bit Sick. In One Room, Where There Were Piled Up Twenty Or Thirty Naked Men, Killed By Starvation, George Patton Would Not Even Enter. He Said He Would Get Sick If He Did So. I Made The Visit Deliberately, In Order To Be In A Position To Give First-hand Evidence Of These Things If Ever, In The Future, There Develops A Tendency To Charge These Allegations Merely To "propaganda".

The One Weapon Every Man, Soldier, Sailor, Or Airman Should Be Able To Use Effectively Is The Rifle. It Is Always His Weapon Of Personal Safety In An Emergency, And For Many It Is The Primary Weapon Of Offence And Defense. Expertness In Its Use Cannot Be Over Emphasized.

Without God There Could Be No American Form Of Government, Nor An American Way Of Life. Recognition Of The Supreme Being Is The First, The Most Basic, Expression Of Americanism. Thus, The Founding Fathers Of America Saw It, And Thus With God's Help, It Will Continue To Be.

To Blend, Without Coercion, The Individual Good And The Common Good Is The Essence Of Citizenship In A Free Country.

War Is Mankind's Most Tragic And Stupid Folly; To Seek Or Advise Its Deliberate Provocation Is A Black Crime Against All Men.

This Operation Is Not Being Planned With Any Alternatives. This Operation Is Planned As A Victory, And That's The Way It's Going To Be. We're Going Down There, And We're Throwing Everything We Have Into It, And We're Going To Make It A Success.

I Had Been Conscious A Feeling Of Depression And So I Voiced To [secretary Of War Stimson] My Grave Misgivings, First On The Basis Of My Belief That Japan Was Already Defeated And That Dropping The Bomb Was Completely Unnecessary, And Secondly Because I Thought That Our Country Should Avoid Shocking World Opinion By The Use Of A Weapon Whose Employment Was, I Thought, No Longer Mandatory As A Measure To Save American Lives. It Was My Belief That Japan Was, At This Very Moment, Seeking A Way To Surrender With A Minimum Loss Of 'face.'

Preventive War Was An Invention Of Hitler. I Would Not Even Listen To Anyone Seriously That Came And Talked About Such A Thing.

I Like To Believe That People In The Long Run Are Going To Do More To Promote Peace Than Our Governments. Indeed, I Think That People Want Peace So Much That One Of These Days Governments Had Better Get Out Of The Way And Let Them Have It.

A Preventive War, To My Mind, Is An Impossibility Today. How Could You Have One If One Of Its Features Would Be Several Cities Lying In Ruins, Several Cities Where Many, Many Thousands Of People Would Be Dead And Injured And Mangled, The Transportation Systems Destroyed, Sanitation Implements And Systems All Gone? That Isn't Preventive War; That Is War.

If Progress Is To Be Steady We Must Have Long Term Guides Extending Far Ahead.

My Constant Prayer, These Days, As I Start My Backswing Is, 'oh, Please Let Me Swing Slowly.' The Trouble Is That Sometimes I Wonder Whether I Swing At All; Whether I Am Not Strictly A Chopper.

You, Of Canada, Are Building A Magnificent Record Of Achievement. My Country Rejoices In It.

The Proudest Thing I Can Claim Is That I Am From Abilene.

When We Get To The Point, As We One Day Will, That Both Sides Know That In Any Outbreak Of General Hostilities, Regardless Of The Element Of Surprise, Destruction Will Be Both Reciprocal And Complete, Possibly We Will Have Sense Enough To Meet At The Conference Table With The Understanding That The Era Of Armaments Has Ended And The Human Race Must Conform Its Actions To This Truth Or Die.

To Be True To One's Own Freedom Is, In Essence, To Honor And Respect The Freedom Of All Others.

Honor And Respect

The United States Pledges Before You-and Therefore Before The World-its Determination To Help Solve The Fearful Atomic Dilemma-to Devote Its Entire Heart And Mind To Find The Way By Which The Miraculous Inventiveness Of Man Shall Not Be Dedicated To His Death, But Consecrated To His Life.

I Assure You That It Is Our Desire And Intention To Keep The Doors Of Consultation Always And Fully Open. There Must Never Be A Final Word Between Friends.

The True Slogan Of A True Democracy Is Not `let The Government Do It' But Rather, 'let's Do It Ourselves'.... This Is The Spirit Of A People Dedicated To Helping Themselves And One Another.

Politics Should Be The Part-time Profession Of Every Citizen.

But I Believe This: By And Large, The United States Ought To Be Able To Choose For Its President Anybody That It Wants, Regardless Of The Number Of Terms He Has Served. That Is What I Believe. Now, Some People Have Said, "you Let Him Get Enough Power And This Will Lead Toward A One-party Government." That, I Don't Believe. I Have Got The Utmost Faith In The Long-term Common Sense Of The American People. Therefore, I Don't Think There Should Be Any Inhibitions Other Than Those That Were In The 35-year Age Limit And So On. I Think That Was Enough, Myself.

I Thought It Completely Absurd To Mention My Name In The Same Breath As The Presidency.

Every Gun That Is Made, Every Warship Launched, Every Rocket Fired, Signifies In The Final Sense A Theft From Those Who Hunger And Are Not Fed, Those Who Are Cold And Are Not Clothed.

'peace And Friendship, In Freedom.'

I Do Not Believe That Any Political Campaign Justifies The Declaration Of A Moratorium On Ordinary Common Sense.

Men And Women, Inspired By Faith In Man's Dignity, Goaded By Conviction In Man's Responsibility, Labored That This Land Might Be A Better Home For Those Who Followed Them. Because Every American Generation Attacked Its Problems With Fresh Vigor, We Have Peopled A Continent, Subdued Its Prairies And Wilderness, Tamed Its Rivers And Devoted Its Resources To The Betterment Of Those Who Dwell In It.

This World In Arms Is Not Spending Money Alone. It Is Spending The Sweat Of Its Laborers, The Genius Of Its Scientists, The Hopes Of Its Children.

When Shallow Critics Denounce The Profit Motive Inherent In Our System Of Private Enterprise, They Ignore The Fact That It Is An Economic Support Of Every Human Right We Possess And Without It, All Rights Would Disappear.

In The Councils Of Government, We Must Guard Against The Acquisition Of Unwarranted Influence, Whether Sought Or Unsought, By The Military-industrial Complex. The Potential For The Disastrous Rise Of Misplaced Power Exists And Will Persist.

The Seeker Is Never So Popular As The Sought. People Want What They Can't Get.

We Merely Want To Live In Peace With All The World.

There Are No Victories At Discount Prices.

The True Purpose Of Education Is To Prepare Young Men And Women For Effective Citizenship In A Free Form Of Government.

Now All Of Us Deplore This Vast Military Spending. Yet, In The Face Of The Soviet Attitude, We Realize Its Necessity. Whatever The Cost, America Will Keep Itself Secure. But In The Process We Must Not, By Our Own Hand, Destroy Or Distort The American System. This We Could Do By Useless Overspending. I Know One Sure Way To Overspend. That Is By Overindulging Sentimental Attachments To Outmoded Military Machines And Concepts.

There's No Tragedy In Life Like The Death Of A Child. Things Never Get Back To The Way They Were.

There Is No Glory In Battle Worth The Blood It Costs.

Ankles Are Nearly Always Neat And Good-looking, But Knees Are Nearly Always Not.

Never Send A Battalion To Take A Hill If A Regiment Is Available.

But I Think A Life Of Raising Prize Cattle, Going Shooting Two Or Three Times A Year, Fishing In The Summer, And Interspersing The Whole Thing With Some Golf And Bridge - And Whenever I Felt Like Talking Or Writing, Doing It With Abandon And With No Sense Of Responsibility Whatsoever - Maybe Such A Life Wouldn't Be So Bad.

Because, Therefore, We Are Defending A Way Of Life, We Must Be Respectful Of That Way Of Life As We Proceed To The Solution Of Our Problem. We Must Not Violate Its Principles And Its Precepts, And We Must Not Destroy From Within What We Are Trying To Defend From Without.

Our Arms Must Be Mighty ... Ready For Instant Action, So That No Potential Aggressor May Be Tempted To Risk His Own Destruction

One Of The Things That I Noticed In War Was How Difficult It Was For Our Soldiers, At First, To Realize That There Are No Rules To War. Our Men Were Raised In Sports, Where A Referee Runs A Football Game, Or An Umpire A Baseball Game, And So Forth.

Work Should Be For All Of Us A Word As Honorable And Appealing As Patriotism.

The Speed, Accuracy And Devastating Power Of American Artillery Won Confidence And Admiration From The Troops It Supported And Inspired Fear And Respect In Their Enemy.

Speeches Are For The Younger Men Who Are Going Places. And I'm Not Going Anyplace Except Six Feet Under The Floor Of That Little Chapel Adjoining The Museum And Library At Abilene.

First, Separate Ground, Sea And Air Warfare Is Gone Forever. This Lesson We Learned In World War Ii. I Lived That Lesson In Europe. Others Lived It In The Pacific. Millions Of American Veterans Learned It Well.

American Veterans

May We Grow In Strength — Without Pride In Self. May We, In Our Dealings With All Peoples Of The Earth, Ever Speak Truth And Serve Justice. And So Shall America — In The Sight Of All Men Of Good Will — Prove True To The Honorable Purposes That Bind And Rule Us As A People In All This Time Of Trial Through Which We Pass.

I Say When You Get Into A War, You Should Win As Quick As You Can, Because Your Losses Become A Function Of The Duration Of The War. I Believe When You Get In A War, Get Everything You Need And Win It.

The Supreme Quality Of Leadership Is Integrity.

... We Have Been Warned By The Power Of Modern Weapons, That Peace May Be The Only Climate Possible For Human Life Itself ... There Must Be Law, Steadily Invoked And Respected By All Nations, For Without Law, The World Promises Only Such Meager Justice As The Pity Of The Strong Upon The Weak.

No Battle Was Ever Won According To Plan, But No Battle Was Ever Won Without One.

According To Plan

Of Course Overlord Did Not Fail. How Could It? With Some Many Fine Young Men And Women From All Corners Of The Earth All Determined To Do Their Best To Free A World Gone Half Mad.

Love Of Liberty Means The Guarding Of Every Resource That Makes Freedom Possible-from The Sanctity Of Our Families And The Wealth Of Our Soil To The Genius [of] Our Scientists.

The World Must Know What Happened, And Never Forget.

[not Achieving A Nuclear Test Ban] Would Have To Be Classed As The Greatest Disappointment Of Any Administration Of Any Decade, Of Any Time And Of Any Party.

There Must Be Justice, Sensed And Shared By All Peoples, For, Without Justice The World Can Know Only A Tense And Unstable Truce.

... The Future Is Very Markedly In Your Hands, Its Value And Its Moral Standing In The World And Among Ourselves. If You Will Take The Power You Have And Use It, I Have No Fear Of The Outcome Of The Future.

Any Nations Right To A Form Of Government And Economic System Of Its Own Choosing Is Inalienable. Any Nations Attempt To Dictate To Other Nations Their Form Of Government Is Indefensible.

If Our Founding Fathers Were Alive Today, They'd Roll Over In Their Graves.

In All Those Things Which Deal With People, Be Liberal, Be Human. In All Those Things Which Deal With The People's Money Or Their Economy Or Their Form Of Government, Be Conservative.

The Older I Get The More Wisdom I Find In The Ancient Rule Of Taking First Things First. A Process Which Often Reduces The Most Complex Human Problem To A Manageable Proportion.

Inspirational Life

It Is Not A Struggle Merely Of Economic Theories, Or Forms Of Government Or Of Military Power. At Issue Is The True Nature Of Man. Either Man Is The Creature Whom The Psalmist Described As A Little Lower Than The Angels ... Or Man Is A Soulless, Animated Machine To Be Enslaved, Used And Consumed By The State For Its Own Glorification. It Is, Therefore, A Struggle Which Goes To The Roots Of The Human Spirit, And Its Shadow Falls Across The Long Sweep Of Man's Destiny.

It Is My Personal Conviction That Almost Any One Of The Newborn States Of The World Would Far Rather Embrace Communism Or Any Other Form Of Dictatorship Than Acknowledge The Political Domination Of Another Government, Even Though That Brought To Each Citizen A Far Higher Standard Of Living.

Through Unity Of Action We Can Be A Veritable Colossus In Support Of Peace. No One Can Defeat Us Unless We First Defeat Ourselves. Every One Of Us Must Be Guided By This Truth.

I Have Spent My Life In The Study Of Military Strength As A Deterrent To War, And In The Character Of Military Armaments Necessary To Win A War. The Study Of The First Of These Questions Is Still Profitable, But We Are Rapidly Getting To The Point That No War Can Be Won.

Before A Battle, Planning Is Everything. Once The Fighting Has Begun, It's Worthless

The Eyes Of The World Are Upon You.

The Best Morale Exist When You Never Hear The Word Mentioned. When You Hear A Lot Of Talk About It, It's Usually Lousy.

And Now, As In No Other Age, We Seek It [peace] Because We Have Been Warned, By The Power Of Modern Weapons, That Peace May Be The Only Climate Possible For Human Life Itself.

A World That Begins To Witness The Rebirth Of Trust Among Nations Can Find Its Way To A Peace That Is Neither Partial Nor Punitive. With All Who Will Work In Good Faith Toward Such A Peace, We Are Ready, With Renewed Resolve, To Strive To Redeem The Near-lost Hopes Of Our Day.

I Was Against It On Two Counts. First, The Japanese Were Ready To Surrender, And It Wasn't Necessary To Hit Them With That Awful Thing. Second, I Hated To See Our Country Be The First To Use Such A Weapon.

Hiroshima And Nagasaki

I Feel Impelled To Speak Today In A Language That In A Sense Is New-one Which I, Who Have Spent So Much Of My Life In The Military Profession, Would Have Preferred Never To Use. That New Language Is The Language Of Atomic Warfare.

In This Way We Shall Constantly Strengthen Those Spiritual Weapons Which Forever Will Be Our Country's Most Powerful Resource In Peace And War.

Recognition Of The Supreme Being Was The First - The Most Basic - Expression Of Americanism.

War Is A Contest, And You Finally Get To A Point Where You Are Talking Merely About Race Suicide, And Nothing Else.

United In This Determination And With Unshakable Faith In The Cause For Which We Fight, We Will, With God's Help, Go Forward To Our Greatest Victory.

As For Myself And For The Secretary Of State And Others Involved, Including Those In The Legislature, We Stand Ready To Do Anything, To Meet With Anyone, Anywhere, As Long As We May Do So In Self-respect, Demanding The Respect Due This Nation, And There Is Any Slightest Idea Or Chance Of Furthering This Great Cause Of Peace.

A People That Values Its Privileges Above Its Principles Soon Loses Both.

War Is Mankind's Most Tragic And Stupid Folly; To Seek Or Advise Its Deliberate Provocation Is A Black Crime Against All Men. Though You Follow The Trade Of The Warrior, You Do So In The Spirit Of Washington - Not Of Genghis Khan. For Americans, Only Threat To Our Way Of Life Justifies Resort To Conflict.

Despite The Present, Temporary Interests That Israel Has In Common With France And Britain, You Ought Not To Forget That The Strength Of Israel And Her Future Are Bound Up With The United States.

Every Gun That Is Made, Every Warship Launched, Every Rocket Fired Signifies In The Final Sense, A Theft From Those Who Hunger And Are Not Fed, Those Who Are Cold And Are Not Clothed. This World In Arms Is Not Spending Money Alone. It Is Spending The Sweat Of Its Laborers, The Genius Of Its Scientists, The Hopes Of Its Children. This Is Not A Way Of Life At All In Any True Sense. Under The Clouds Of War, It Is Humanity Hanging On A Cross Of Iron.

It Is Far More Important To Be Able To Hit The Target Than It Is To Haggle Over Who Makes A Weapon Or Who Pulls A Trigger.

Give Us, We Pray, The Power To Discern Clearly Right From Wrong, And Allow All Our Words And Actions To Be Governed Thereby, And By The Laws Of This Land. Especially We Pray That Our Concern Shall Be For All The People Regardless Of Station, Race, Or Calling.

I Hate War As Only A Soldier Who Has Lived It Can, Only As One Who Has Seen Its Brutality, Its Futility, Its Stupidity.

First, Separate Ground, Sea And Air Warfare Is Gone Forever. If Ever Again We Should Be Involved In War, We Will Fight It In All Elements, With All Services, As One Single Concentrated Effort.

Any Survey Of The Free World's Defense Structure Cannot Fail To Impart A Feeling Of Regret That So Much Of Our Effort And Resources Must Be Devoted To Armaments.

If The United Nations Once Admits That International Disputes Can Be Settled By Using Force, Then We Will Have Destroyed The Foundation Of The Organization And Our Best Hope Of Establishing A World Order.

Well, When You Come Down To It, I Don't See That A Reporter Could Do Much To A President, Do You?

The Righteousness Of Men Should Be Treated With The Same Respect That One Would Accord To A Rattlesnake. Things Are More Like They Are Now Than They Ever Were Before.

No One Should Ever Sit In This Office Over 70 Years Old, And That I Know.

It Is Still A Fact That Our Common Frontier Grows Stronger Every Year, Defended Only By Friendship.

Art Is A Universal Language And Through It Each Nation Makes Its Own Unique Contribution To The Culture Of Mankind.

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