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If We Make Ourselves Worthy Of America's Ideals, If We Do Not Forget That Our Nation Was Founded On The Premise That All Men Are Creatures Of God's Making, The World Will Come To Know That It Is Free Men Who Carry Forward The True Promise Of Human Progress And Dignity.

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

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If We Make Ourselves

Dwight D. Eisenhower

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If We Make Ourselves Worthy Of America's Ideals, If We Do Not Forget That Our Nation Was Founded On The Premise That All Men Are Creatures Of God's Making, The World Will Come To Know That It Is Free Men Who Carry Forward The True Promise Of Human Progress And Dignity.

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

It Is Better To Have One Person Working With You Than Three People Working For You.

The One Weapon Every Man, Soldier, Sailor, Or Airman Should Be Able To Use Effectively Is The Rifle.

The Problem Is Not Merely Man Against Man Or Nation Against Nation. It Is Man Against War.

Like Myself, All Americans Have A Deep Concern For The Well-being Of Iran. With Them I Have Watched Closely Your Courageous Efforts, Your Steadfastness Over The Past Difficult Years, And With Them I Too Have Hoped That You Might Achieve The Goals You So Earnestly Desire. The Attainment Of An Oil Settlement Along The Lines Which Have Been Announced Should Be A Significant Step In The Direction Of The Realization Of Your Aspirations For Your People.

I Shall Make That Trip. I Shall Go To Korea.

Change Based On Principle Is Progress. Constant Change Without Principle Becomes Chaos.

The Sergeant Is The Army.

The System Is Not Intended As A Substitute For Private Savings, Pension Plans, And Insurance Protection. It Is, Rather, Intended As The Foundation Upon Which These Other Forms Of Protection Can Be Soundly Built. Thus, The Individual's Own Work, His Planning And His Thrift Will Bring Him A Higher Standard Of Living Upon His Retirement, Or His Family A Higher Standard Of Living In The Event Of His Death, Than Would Otherwise Be The Case. Hence The System Both Encourages Thrift And Self-reliance, And Helps To Prevent Destitution In Our National 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.

The Past Sharpens Perspective, Warns Against Pitfalls, And Helps To Point The Way.

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

The Friendship Of A Dog Is Precious. It Becomes Even More So When One Is So Far Removed From Home.... I Have A Scottie. In Him I Find Consolation And Diversion... He Is The "one Person" To Whom I Can Talk Without The Conversation Coming Back To War.

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.

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.

No Man Can Always Be Right. So The Struggle Is To Do One's Best, To Keep The Brain And Conscience Clear, Never Be Swayed By Unworthy Motives Or Inconsequential Reasons, But To Strive To Unearth The Basic Factors Involved, Then Do One's Duty.

We Are Going To Have Peace Even If We Have To Fight For It.

The Purpose Is Clear. It Is Safety With Solvency. The Country Is Entitled To Both.

In This Hope, Among The Things We Teach To The Young Are Such Truths As The Transcendent Value Of The Individual And The Dignity Of All People, The Futility And Stupidity Of War, Its Destructiveness Of Life And Its Degradation Of Human Values.

A Constitutional Amendment For Congressional Term Limits Could Never Achieve The Blessing Of Congress; It Could Be Initiated Only By The States.

If You Are Waging Peace, You Can't Be Too Particular Sometimes About The Special Attitudes That Different Countries Take. We Were A Young Country Once, And Our Whole Policy For The First 150 Years Was, We Were Neutral.

I Never Saw A Pessimistic General Win A Battle.

[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.

Before All Else, We Seek, Upon Our Common Labor As A Nation, The Blessings Of Almighty God.

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

There Is One Thing About Being President -- Nobody Can Tell You When To Sit Down.

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.

I Would Rather Try To Persuade A Man To Go Along, Because Once I Have Persuaded Him, He Will Stick. If I Scare Him, He Will Stay Just As Long As He Is Scared, And Then He Is Gone.

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.

I’m Going To Pass A Law That No One Can Ask Me My Golf Score.

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

As It Is An Ancient Truth That Freedom Cannot Be Legislated Into Existence, So It Is No Less Obvious That Freedom Cannot Be Censored Into Existence.

I Am Inclined By Nature To Be Optimistic About The Capacity Of A Person To Rise Higher Than He Or She Has Thought Possible Once Interest And Ambition Are Aroused.

The Most Terrible Job In Warfare Is To Be A Second Lieutenant Leading A Platoon When You Are On The Battlefield.

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

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

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

Peace Is More The Product Of Our Day-to-day Living Than Of A Spectacular Program, Intermittently Executed.

Day To Day Living

All Generalizations Are Inaccurate, Including This One.

For A Just And Lasting Peace, Here Is My Solemn Pledge To You: By Dedication And Patience We Will Continue, As Long As I Remain Your President, To Work For This Simple - This Single - This Exclusive Goal.

By Mutual Respect, Understanding And With Good Will We Can Find Acceptable Solutions To Any Problems Which Exist Or May Arise Between Us.

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

The Same Day I Saw My First Horror Camp, I Visited Every Nook And Cranny. I Felt It My Duty To Be In A Position From Then On To Testify About These Things In Case There Ever Grew Up At Home The Belief Or Assumption That The Stories Of Nazi Brutality Were Just Propaganda.

Military Power Serves The Cause Of Security By Making Prohibitive The Cost Of Any Aggressive Attack. It Serves The Cause Of Peace By Holding Up A Shield Behind Which The Patient Constructive Work Of Peace Can Go On.

The Search For A Scapegoat Is The Easiest Of All Hunting Expeditions.

When I Was A Small Boy In Kansas, A Friend Of Mine And I Went Fishing. I Told Him I Wanted To Be A Real Major League Baseball Player, A Genuine Professional Like Honus Wagner. My Friend Said That He'd Like To Be President Of The United States. Neither Of Us Got Our Wish.

The World Must Learn To Work Together, Or Finally It Will Not Work At All.

Working Together

Here In America We Are Descended In Blood And In Spirit From Revolutionists And Rebels - Men And Women Who Dare To Dissent From Accepted Doctrine. As Their Heirs, May We Never Confuse Honest Dissent With Disloyal Subversion.

There Is No Person In This Room Whose Basic Rights Are Not Involved In Any Successful Defiance To The Carrying Out Of Court Orders.

America Is Best Described By One Word, Freedom.

You Can Decide To Invade Russia At Dinner, Pick Waterloo For Battle On A Whim. It's The Details, The Small Stuff. Its Easy To Gamble A Million Lives. Whats Hard Is To See How That Can Hurt One Single Person. And If You Cant Keep That Straight, Hell, You'll Lose Your Humanity.

If You Want Total Security, Go To Prison. There You're Fed, Clothed, Given Medical Care And So On. The Only Thing Lacking... Is Freedom.

There Is -- In World Affairs -- A Steady Course To Be Followed Between An Assertion Of Strength That Is Truculent And A Confession Of Helplessness That Is Cowardly.

Few Women, I Fear, Have Had Such Reason As I Have To Think The Long Sad Years Of Youth Were Worth Living For The Sake Of Middle Age.

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

The Clearest Way To Show What The Rule Of Law Means To Us In Everyday Life Is To Recall What Has Happened When There Is No Rule Of Law.

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.

Never Question Another Man's Motive. His Wisdom, Yes, But Not His Motives.

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.

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

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

Pessimism Never Won Any Battle.

[t]he Rule Of Law Does More Than Ensure Freedom From High-handed Action By Rulers. It Ensures Justice Between Man And Man However Humble The One And However Powerful The Other. A Man With Five Dollars In The Bank Can Call To Account The Corporation With Five Billion Dollars In Assets-and The Two Will Be Heard As Equals Before The Law.

Fortunately For Us And Our World, Youth Is Not Easily Discouraged. Youth With Its Clear Vista And Boundless Faith And Optimism Is Uninhibited By The Thousands Of Considerations That Always Bedevil Man In His Progress. The Hopes Of The World Rest On The Flexibility, Vigor, Capacity For New Thought, And The Fresh Outlook Of The Young.

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.

... 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.

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.

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.

Your Country, My Country - Each Is A Better And Stronger And More Influential Nation Because Each Can Rely Upon Every Resource Of The Other In Days Of Crisis. Beyond This, Each Can Work And Grow And Prosper With The Other Through Years Of Quiet Peace.

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.

To Have A Free, Peaceful And Prosperous World We Must Be Ever Stronger Particularly In The Spiritual Things....it Is American Belief In Decency And Justice And Progress And The Value Of Individual Liberty Because Of The Rights Conferred On Each Of Us By Our Creator That Willcarry Us Through.... There Must Be Something In The Heart As Well As The Head.

I Don't Think The United States Needs Superpatriots. We Need Patriotism, Honestly Practiced By All Of Us, And We Don't Need These People That Are More Patriotic Than You Or Anyone Else.

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

Kinship Among Nations Is Not Determined In Such Measurements As Proximity Of Size And Age. Rather We Should Turn To Those Inner Things - Call Them What You Will - I Mean Those Intangibles That Are The Real Treasures Free Men Possess.

So - Our Readiness To Meet And Defeat This Kind Of Possible Attack Is Forced Upon Us, Both As A Potent Preventive Of Actual War And To Insure Survival In Event Of Attack. This Alertness To Danger Has To Be Translated Into Specific Policies And Activities In The Several Parts Of The World Where Our Rights - Our Way Of Life - Can Be Seriously Damaged. Work Of This Kind Occupies My Days And Nights.

In This War, Which Was Total In Every Sense Of The Word, We Have Seen Many Great Changes In Military Science. It Seems To Me That Not The Least Of These Was The Development Of Psychological Warfare As A Specific And Effective Weapon.

The Supreme Quality For Leadership Is Unquestionably Integrity. Without It, No Real Success Is Possible, No Matter Whether It Is On A Section Gang, A Football Field, In An Army, Or In An Office.

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

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

We Have Never Stopped Sin By Passing Laws; And In The Same Way, We Are Not Going To Take A Great Moral Ideal And Achieve It Merely By Law.

History Does Not Long Entrust The Care Of Freedom To The Weak Or The Timid.

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.

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

. . .a Sense Of Humor Can Be A Great Help-particularly A Sense Of Humor About (oneself). William Howard Taft Joked About His Own Corpulence And People Loved It; Took Nothing From His Inherent Dignity. Lincoln Eased Tense Moments With Bawdy Stories, And Often Poked Fun At Himself-and History Honors Him For This Human Quality. A Sense Of Humor Is Part Of The Art Of Leadership, Of Getting Along With People, Of Getting Things Done.

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

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.

... 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.

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.

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.

Now This Brings Me To My Main Topic - Our Military Strength - More Specifically, How To Stay Strong Against Threat From Outside, Without Undermining The Economic Health That Supports Our Security.

From Behind The Iron Curtain, There Are Signs That Tyranny Is In Trouble And Reminders That Its Structure Is As Brittle As Its Surface Is Hard.

Disorganization Can Scarcely Fail To Result In Efficiency.

Disorganization

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

The Opportunist Thinks Of Me And Today. The Statesman Thinks Of Us And Tomorrow.

Legislation To Apply The Principle Of Equal Pay For Equal Work Without Discrimination Because Of Sex Is A Matter Of Simple Justice

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.

In The Service, When A Man Gives You His Word, His Word Is Binding. In Politics, You Never Know.

We Must Be Strong At Home If We Are Going To Be Strong Abroad. We Understand That. So We Want To Be Strong At Home In Our Morale Or In Our Spirit, We Want To Be Strong Intellectually, In Our Education, In Our Economy And, Where Necessary, Militarily.

I'm Saving That Rocker For The Day When I Feel As Old As I Really Am.

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.

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.

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.

The Libraries Of America Are And Must Ever Remain The Home Of Free And Inquiring Minds. To Them, Our Citizens-of All Ages And Races, Of All Creeds And Persuasions-must Be Able To Turn With Clear Confidence That There They Can Freely Seek The Whole Truth, Unvarnished By Fashion And Uncompromised By Expediency.

The Problem In Defense Is How Far You Can Go Without Destroying From Within What You Are Trying To Defend From Without.

The Cost Of One Modern Heavy Bomber Is This: A Modern Brick School In More Than 30 Cities ... We Pay For A Single Fighter With A Half Million Bushels Of Wheat. We Pay For A Single Destroyer With New Homes That Could Have Housed More Than 8,000 People.

I'm For Each And Against None.

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

If I Didn't Have Air Supremacy, I Wouldn't Be Here.

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 Necessary And Wise Subordination Of The Military To Civil Power Must Be Sustained.

I Believe That For The Past Twenty Years There Has Been A Creeping Socialism Spreading In The United States.

Controlled, Universal Disarmament Is The Imperative Of Our Time. The Demand For It By The Hundreds Of Millions Whose Chief Concern Is The Long Future Of Themselves And Their Children Will, I Hope, Become So Universal And So Insistent That No Man, No Government Anywhere, Can Withstand It.

Without A Doubt, Psychological Warfare Has Proven Its Right To A Place Of Dignity In Our Military Arsenal.

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

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.

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.

'peace And Friendship, In Freedom.'

People In The Long Run Are Going To Do More To Promote Peace Than Governments.

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.

Leadership Is The Art Of Getting Someone Else To Do Something You Want Done Because He Wants To Do It.

There Can Be No True Disarmament Without Peace, And There Can Be No Real Peace Without Very Material Disarmament.

Forces Of Good And Evil Are Massed And Armed And Opposed As Rarely Before In History. Freedom Is Pitted Against Slavery; Lightness Against The Dark... In The Final Choice, A Soldier's Pack Is Not So Heavy A Burden As A Prisoner's Chains.

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.

A Voter Without A Ballot Is Like A Soldier Without A Bullet.

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

Teachers Need Our Active Support And Encouragement. They Are Doing One Of The Most Necessary And Exacting Jobs In The Land. They Are Developing Our Most Precious National Resource: Our Children, Our Future Citizens.

And They Can Appreciate, Through Personal Experience, That The Really Decisive Battleground Of American Freedom Is In The Hearts And Minds Of Our Own People... Each Day We Must Ask That Almighty God Will Set And Keep His Protecting Hand Over Us So That We May Pass On To Those Who Come After Us The Heritage Of A Free People, Secure In Their God-given Rights And In Full Control Of A Government Dedicated To The Preservation Of Those Rights.

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.

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

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.

And The Next Thing Is That Every War Is Going To Astonish You In The Way It Occurred, And In The Way It Is Carried Out.

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

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

The Teaching Of Their Ancient Belief Is Filled With Truth For The Present Day. Its Profound Sense Of Justice, Nation To Nation, Man To Man, Is An Essential Part Of Every Religious And Social Order. The Health Of Our Society Depends Upon A Deep And Abiding Respect For The Basic Commandments Of The God Of Israel.

... 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.

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

I Firmly Believe That The Army Of Persons Who Urge Greater And Greater Centralization Of Authority And Greater And Greater Dependence Upon The Federal Treasury Are Really More Dangerous To Our Form Of Government Than Any External Threat That Can Possibly Be Arrayed Against Us.

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.'

If A Man's Associates Find Him Guilty Of Being Phony, If They Find That He Lacks Forthright Integrity, He Will Fail. His Teachings And Actions Must Square With Each Other. The First Great Need, Therefore, Is Integrity And High Purpose.

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.

...the Exchange Of Students...should Be Vastly Expanded...information And Education Are Powerful Forces In Support Of Peace. Just As War Begins In The Minds Of Men, So Does Peace.

When You Appeal To Force, There's One Thing You Must Never Do - Lose.

Things Have Never Been More Like The Way They Are Today In History.

No One Should Be Appointed To Political Office If He Is A Seeker After It.

Only Americans Can Hurt America.

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 Vast Stretches Of The Earth, Men Awoke Today In Hunger. They Will Spend The Day In Unceasing Toil. And As The Sun Goes Down They Will Still Know Hunger. They Will See Suffering In The Eyes Of Their Children. Many Despair That Their Labor Will Ever Decently Shelter Their Families Or Protect Them Against Disease. So Long As This Is So, Peace And Freedom Will Be In Danger Throughout Our World. For Wherever Free Men Lose Hope Of Progress, Liberty Will Be Weakened And The Seeds Of Conflict Will Be Sown.

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.

Oh, That Lovely Title, Ex-president.

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

And I Should Like To Assure You, My Islamic Friends, That Under The American Constitution, Under American Tradition, And In American Hearts, This Center, This Place Of Worship, Is Just As Welcome As Could Be A Similar Edifice Of Any Other Religion. Indeed, America Would Fight With Her Whole Strength For Your Right To Have Here Your Own Church And Worship According To Your Own Conscience. This Concept Is Indeed A Part Of America, And Without That Concept We Would Be Something Else Than What We Are.

Should Any Political Party Attempt To Abolish Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, And Eliminate Labor Laws And Farm Programs, You Would Not Hear Of That Party Again In Our Political History.

May We Never Confuse Honest Dissent With Disloyal Subversion.

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.

We Have The Disgrace Of Racial Discrimination, Or We Have Prejudice Against People Because Of Their Religion. We Have Not Had The Courage To Uproot These Things, Although We Know They Are Wrong.

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

Freedom Bestows On Us The Priceless Gift Of Opportunity - If We Neglect Our Opportunities We Shall Certainly Lose Our Freedom.

Kinship Among Nations Is Not Determined In Such Measurements As Proximity Of Size And Age. Rather We Should Turn To Those Inner Things - Call Them What You Will - I Mean Those Intangibles That Are The Real Treasures Free Men Possess. To Preserve His Freedom Of Worship, His Equality Before Law, His Liberty To Speak And Act As He Sees Fit, Subject Only To Provisions That He Trespass Not Upon Similar Rights Of Others - A Londoner Will Fight. So Will A Citizen Of Abilene. When We Consider These Things, Then The Valley Of The Thames Draws Closer To The Farms Of Kansas And The Plains Of Texas.

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.

Personal Prayer, It Seems To Me, Is One Of The Simplest Necessities Of Life, As Basic To The Individual As Sunshine, Food And Water-and At Times, Of Course, More So. By Prayer I Mean An Effort To Get In Touch With The Infinite. We Know That Our Prayers Are Imperfect. Of Course They Are. We Are Imperfect Human Beings. A Thousand Experiences Have Convinced Me Beyond Room Of Doubt That Prayer Multiplies The Strength Of The Individual And Brings Within The Scope Of His Capabilities Almost Any Conceivable Objective.

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

It Will Begin With Its President Taking A Simple, Firm Resolution. The Resolution Will Be: To Forego The Diversions Of Politics And To Concentrate On The Job Of Ending The Korean War-until That Job Is Honorably Done. That Job Requires A Personal Trip To Korea. I Shall Make That Trip. Only In That Way Could I Learn How Best To Serve The American People In The Cause Of Peace. I Shall Go To Korea.

We Are Tired Of Aristocratic Explanations In Harvard Words.

There Are No Victories At Discount Prices.

No People On Earth Can Be Held, As A People, To Be An Enemy, For All Humanity Shares The Common Hunger For Peace And Fellowship And Justice.

The Hope Of The World Is That Wisdom Can Arrest Conflict Between Brothers. I Believe That War Is The Deadly Harvest Of Arrogant And Unreasoning Minds. And I Find Grounds For This Belief In The Wisdom Literature Of Proverbs. It Says In Effect This: Panic Strikes Like A Storm And Calamity Comes Like A Whirlwind To Those Who Hate Knowledge And Ignore Their God.

Things Are More Like They Are Now Than They Ever Were Before.

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.

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

I Believe It Is A Tradition In Baseball That When A Pitcher Has A No-hitter Going, No One Reminds Him Of It.

So Long As We Govern Our Nation By The Letter And Spirit Of The Bill Of Rights, We Can Be Sure That Our Nation Will Grow In Strength And Wisdom And Freedom.

Only Our Individual Faith In Freedom Can Keep Us Free.

Don't Join The Book Burners!

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

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

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.

Unlike Presidential Administrations, Problems Rarely Have Terminal Dates.

Always Try To Associate Yourself With And Learn As Much As You Can From Those Who Know More Than You Do, Who Do Better Than You, Who See More Clearly Than You.

Better Than You

The Federal Government Has A Responsibility To Manage Wisely Those Public Lands And Forests Under Its Jurisdiction Necessary In The Interest Of The Public As A Whole. ... In The Utilization Of These Lands, The People Are Entitled To Expect That Their Timber, Minerals, Streams And Water Supply, Wildlife And Recreational Values Should Be Safeguarded, Improved And Made Available Not Only For This But For Future Generations.

The One Quality That Can Be Developed By Studious Reflection And Practice Is The Leadership Of Men.

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

You Will Not Find It Difficult To Prove That Battles, Campaigns, And Even Wars Have Been Won Or Lost Primarily Because Of Logistics.

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

The Building Of Such A Peace Is A Bold And Solemn Purpose. To Proclaim It Is Easy. To Serve It Will Be Hard. And To Attain It, We Must Be Aware Of Its Full Meaning - And Ready To Pay Its Full Price.

Morale Is The Greatest Single Factor In Successful Wars.

An Intellectual Is A Man Who Takes More Words Than Necessary To Tell More Than He Knows.

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?

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

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.

Neither A Wise Man Nor A Brave Man Lies Down On The Tracks Of History To Wait For The Train Of The Future To Run Over Him.

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.

Innovations And Discoveries Have Created New Industries Giving More And More Americans Better Jobs And Adding Greatly To The Prosperity And Well Being Of All.

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

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

Should Any Political Party Attempt To Abolish Social Security Unemployment Insurance And Eliminate Labor Laws And Farm Programs You Would Not Hear Of That Party Again In Our Political History. There Is A Tiny Splinter Group Of Course That Believes You Can Do These Things. Among Them Are A Few Other Texas Oil Millionaires And An Occasional Politician Or Business Man From Other Areas. Their Number Is Negligible And They Are Stupid.

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

How Can We Appraise A Proposal If The Terms Hurled At Our Ears Can Mean Anything Or Nothing, And Change Their Significance With The Inflection Of The Voice? Welfare State, National Socialism, Radical, Liberal, Conservative, Reactionary And A Regiment Of Others ... These Terms In Today's Usage, Are Generally Compounds Of Confusion And Prejudice. If Our Attitudes Are Muddled, Our Language Is Often To Blame. A Good Tonic For Clearer Thinking Is A Dose Of Precise, Legal Definition.

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

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.

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Christopher Hampton

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Stephen Vincent Benet

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