Dean Acheson famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

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 #Important #Endurance
Always remember that the future comes one day at a time.
-- Dean Acheson

#Inspirational #Motivational #Change
A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.
-- Dean Acheson

#Funny #Accountability #Political
Negotiation in the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree.
-- Dean Acheson

#Inspirational #Party #Classic
The greatest mistake I made was not to die in office.
-- Dean Acheson

#Mistake #Office #Made
[President Truman] was free of the greatest vice in a leader, his ego never came between him and his job.
-- Dean Acheson

#Jobs #Leader #Ego
I doubt very much if a man whose main literary interests were in works by Mr. Zane Grey, admirable as they may be, is particularly equipped to be the chief executive of this country, particularly where Indian Affairs are concerned.
-- Dean Acheson

#Country #Men #Political
It is worse than immoral, it's a mistake.
-- Dean Acheson

#Mistake #Immoral
Controversial proposals, once accepted, soon become hallowed.
-- Dean Acheson

#Acceptance #Proposal #Controversial
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 #Apples
If we learn the art of yielding what must be yielded to the changing present, we can save the best of the past.
-- Dean Acheson

#Art #Past #Save Nature
We have actively sought and are actively seeking to make the United Nations an effective instrument of international cooperation.
-- Dean Acheson

#Cooperation #Instruments #United Nations
Americans assume Canada to be bestowed as a right and accept this bounty, as they do air, without thought or appreciation.
-- Dean Acheson

#Appreciation #Air #Canada
Between 9 and 10 AM the American radio is concerned almost exclusively with love. It seems a little like ending breakfast with a stiff bourbon.
-- Dean Acheson

#Breakfast #Radio #Littles
The limitations imposed by democratic political practices makes it difficult to conduct our foreign affairs in the national interest.
-- Dean Acheson

#Practice #Political #Affair
Vietnam was worse than immoral - it was a mistake.
-- Dean Acheson

#Mistake #Vietnam #Immoral
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
The defensive perimeter [of the United States in East Asia] runs along the Aleutians to Japan and then goes to the Ryukyus.
-- Dean Acheson

#Running #War #Japan
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
The great corrupter of public man is the ego.... Looking at the mirror distracts one's attention from the problem.
-- Dean Acheson

#Men #Mirrors #Ego
Time spent in the advertising business seems to create a permanent deformity like the Chinese habit of foot-binding.
-- Dean Acheson

#Feet #Chinese #Advertising
The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
-- Dean Acheson

#Dull #Politics #Requirements
Washington is like a self-sealing tank on a military aircraft. When a bullet passes through, it closes up.
-- Dean Acheson

#Military #Self #Political
The most important aspect of the relationship between the president and the secretary of state is that they both understand who is president.
-- Dean Acheson

#Understanding #Important #President
I will undoubtedly have to seek what is happily known as gainful employment, which I am glad to say does not describe holding public office.
-- Dean Acheson

#Work #Office #Doe
Great Britain has lost an Empire and has not yet found a role.
-- Dean Acheson

#Roles #Empires #Lost
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
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 â€“ not so very â€“ long run.
-- Dean Acheson

#Running #Long #Tests

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