Statesmanship Quotes

presidents, when not outright telling lies, feel obliged to shade the truth most of the time. This is called politics; when a president lies successfully, he is called a statesman.

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.

He had become, through a combination of heritage and character, a keeper of the national conscience.

Ambassadors are the eye and ear of states.

The President is also captured in a well-worn TV news clip, making a boilerplate response to a question on terrorism and then asking the reporters to watch his drive. Well, that's what you get if you catch the President on a golf course. If Eisenhower had done this, as he often did, it would have been presented as calm statesmanship. If Clinton had done it, as he often did, it would have shown his charm.

The eternal sea of politics is best left to politicians.

Statesmen should remember that they have been elected to persuade and to lead, and not just to accept as fixed the momentary moods and pernicious prejudices of the public.

Learn to think continentally.

Americans talked about voters the same way Russians talked about Stalin. They had to be obeyed.

Diplomacy's primary law: LEAVE ROOM FOR NEGOTIATION.

Peace commerce and honest friendship with all nations - entangling alliances with none.

Help yourself with the state! It's on democracy!

This isn't about your reputation. Our job right now is to make sure that there to ARE future historians.

He had been around politicians for a long time, and he was prepared for some outburst.

Politics look very simple to the outsider whether he is a businessman or a soldier – it is only when you get into it that all the angles and hard work become apparent. James Forrestal

[T]here cannot be a more certain symptom of the approaching ruin of a State than when a firm adherence to party is fixed upon as the only test of merit, and all the qualifications requisite to a right discharge of every employment, are reduced to that single standard.

State first, subject second, statesman last.

In a democracy government is the God.

The author defines professionalism as exemplified by his subjects in their mutual unwillingness to take expected opposition personally. They would not allow grudges to get in the way of more important business.

I would rather contend with an honest asshole than a duplicitous diplomat.

Statesmanship is developed in the hard knocks of general experience, private and public.

The reality is that the American people have no desire for an empire. This is not to say that they don't want the benefits, both economic and strategic. It simply means that they don't want to pay the price. Economically, Americans want the growth potential of open markets but not the pains. Politically, they want to have an enormous influence, but not the resentment of the world. Military, they want to be protected from dangers but not to bear the burdens of long-term strategy.

Nine-nine of every hundred among you probably desire peace, while the balance may hold war a condition to be preferred; but what can be the mental norm of statesmanship where such a minority conquer the peace-lovers?

He believed that rank without power was a sham.

An anti-politician is hardly an anti-politician once he starts winning and works to close the deal by working to sew up the Establishment.