Dwight D. Eisenhower

“The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice; their choice!”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.”

“We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.”

“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.”

“Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.”

“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.”

“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 are a number of things wrong with Washington. One of them is that everyone is too far from home.”

“If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.”

“An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.”

“No one should ever sit in this office over 70 years old, and that I know.”

“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.”

“Some people wanted champagne and caviar when they should have had beer and hot dogs.”

“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”

“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.”

“When you put on a uniform, there are certain inhibitions that you accept.”

“Don't join the book burners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.”

“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.”

“Our forces saved the remnants of the Jewish people of Europe for a new life and a new hope in the reborn land of Israel. Along with all men of good will, I salute the young state and wish it well.”

“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.”

“Unlike presidential administrations, problems rarely have terminal dates.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.”

“Politics is a profession; a serious, complicated and, in its true sense, a noble one.”

“'Worry' is a word that I don't allow myself to use.”

“I have only one yardstick by which I test every major problem - and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?”

“Our pleasures were simple - they included survival.”

“The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give it to them.”

“The most terrible job in warfare is to be a second lieutenant leading a platoon when you are on the battlefield.”

“The United States strongly seeks a lasting agreement for the discontinuance of nuclear weapons tests. We believe that this would be an important step toward reduction of international tensions and would open the way to further agreement on substantial measures of disarmament.”

“Oh, that lovely title, ex-president.”

“The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice; their choice!”

“The most terrible job in warfare is to be a second lieutenant leading a platoon when you are on the battlefield.”

“I shall make that trip. I shall go to Korea.”

“Don't think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.”

“We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom.”

“The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it's usually lousy.”

“Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative.”

“Ankles are nearly always neat and good-looking, but knees are nearly always not.”

“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.”

“Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg.”

“The purpose is clear. It is safety with solvency. The country is entitled to both.”

“In most communities it is illegal to cry 'fire' in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?”

“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.”

“I have one yardstick by which I test every major problem - and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?”

“Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.”

“There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.”

“How far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?”

“Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.”

“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.”

“The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth.”

“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.”

“I'm saving that rocker for the day when I feel as old as I really am.”

“This desk of mine is one at which a man may die, but from which he cannot resign.”

“The free world must not prove itself worthy of its own past.”

“An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.”

“I thought it completely absurd to mention my name in the same breath as the presidency.”

“Well, when you come down to it, I don't see that a reporter could do much to a president, do you?”

“We are tired of aristocratic explanations in Harvard words.”

“The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice; their choice!”

“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.”

“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”

“Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.”

“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”

“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.”

“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.”

“You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.”

“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.”

“There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.”

“When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing and as we sat there in the warmth of the summer afternoon on a river bank, we talked about what we wanted to do when we grew up. I told him that 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.”

“If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.”

“I'm going to command the whole shebang.”

“The chief of staff says I'm the guy.”

“This is a long tough road we have to travel. The men that can do things are going to be sought out just as surely as the sun rises in the morning. Fake reputations, habits of glib and clever speech, and glittering surface performance are going to be discovered.”

“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.”

“Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends.”

“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.”

“Steady, Monty. You can't speak to me like that. I'm your boss.”

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity.”

“Democracy is essentially a political system that recognizes the equality of humans before the law.”

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”

“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.”

“The free individual has been justified as his own master; the state as his servant.”

“Censorship, in my opinion, is a stupid and shallow way of approaching the solution to any problem. Though sometimes necessary, as witness a professional and technical secret that may have a bearing upon the welfare and very safety of this country, we should be very careful in the way we apply it, because in censorship always lurks the very great danger of working to the disadvantage of the American nation.”

“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 hand of the aggressor is stayed by strength — and strength alone.”

“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.”

“Neither a wise man or a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.”

“From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city, every village, and every rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.”

“There is one thing about being President — nobody can tell you when to sit down.”

“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.”

“You have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the falling domino principle. You have a row of dominoes set up. You knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have the beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.”

“The general limits of your freedom are merely these: that you do not trespass upon the equal rights of others.”

“Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionaries and rebels—men and women who dared to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.”

“This is something, eh, that is the kind of thing that must be gone through with what I believe is best not talked about too much until we know whatever answers there will be.”

“Now I think, speaking roughly, by leadership we mean the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it.”

“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 saw it, and thus, with God's help, it will continue to be.”

“I think the women, therefore, must be concerned with these values, and I return to my statement that if a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.”

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”

“We have erased segregation in those areas of national life to which Federal authority clearly extends. So doing in this, my friends, we have neither sought nor claimed partisan credit, and all such actions are nothing more -- nothing less than the rendering of justice. And we have always been aware of this great truth: the final battle against intolerance is to be fought -- not in the chambers of any legislature -- but in the hearts of men.”

“The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice; their choice!”

“I tell this story to illustrate the truth of the statement I heard long ago in the Army: Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. There is a very great distinction because when you are planning for an emergency you must start with this one thing: the very definition of "emergency" is that it is unexpected, therefore it is not going to happen the way you are planning.”

“Never waste a minute thinking about people you don't like.”

“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight — it's the size of the fight in the dog.”

“The United States strongly seeks a lasting agreement for the discontinuance of nuclear weapons tests. We believe that this would be an important step toward reduction of international tensions and would open the way to further agreement on substantial measures of disarmament.”

“This world of ours... must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.”

“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.”

“Oh, goddammit, we forgot the silent prayer.”

“I do have one instruction for you, General. Do something about that damned football team.”

“I propose to use whatever authority exists in the office of the President to end segregation in the District of Columbia, including the Federal Government, and any segregation in the Armed Forces.”

“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. … No nation's security and well-being can be lastingly achieved in isolation but only in effective cooperation with fellow-nations.”

“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 free world knows, out of the bitter wisdom of experience, that vigilance and sacrifice are the price of liberty.”

“This we do know: 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.”

“The purpose of the United States, in stating these proposals, is simple. [...] They aspire to this: the lifting, from the backs and from the hearts of men, of their burden of arms and of fears, so that they may find before them a golden age of freedom and of peace.”

“These proposals spring, without ulterior motive or political passion, from our calm conviction that the hunger for peace is in the hearts of all people -- those of Russia and of China no less than of our own country. They conform to our firm faith that God created man to enjoy, not destroy, the fruits of the earth and of their own toil.”

“I believe as long as we allow conditions to exist that make for second-class citizens, we are making of ourselves less than first-class citizens.”

“I know that the American people share my deep belief that if a danger exists in the world, it is a danger shared by all; and equally, that if hope exists in the mind of one nation, that hope should be shared by all.”

“The gravity of the time is such that every new avenue of peace, no matter how dimly discernible, should be explored.”

“The United States would seek more than the mere reduction or elimination of atomic materials for military purposes. It is not enough to take this weapon out of the hands of the soldiers. It must be put into the hands of those who will know how to strip its military casing and adapt it to the arts of peace.”

“May the light of freedom, coming to all darkened lands, flame brightly — until at last the darkness is no more. May the turbulence of our age yield to a true time of peace, when men and nations shall share a life that honors the dignity of each, the brotherhood of all.”

“There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.”

“It is only as we govern ourselves that we are well-governed.”

“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.”

“Un-American activity cannot be prevented or routed out by employing un-American methods; to preserve freedom we must use the tools that freedom provides.”

“It was generally conceded that had an election been held, Ho Chi Minh would have been elected Premier.”

“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.”

“I share the sense of shock and dismay that the entire nation must feel at the despicable act that took the life of the nation's president. On the personal side, Mrs. Eisenhower and I share the grief that Mrs. Kennedy must now feel. We send to her our prayerful thoughts and sympathetic sentiments in this hour.”

“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.”

“One circumstance that helped our character development: we were needed. I often think today of what an impact could be made if children believed they were contributing to a family's essential survival and happiness. In the transformation from a rural to an urban society, children are — though they might not agree — robbed of the opportunity to do genuinely responsible work.”

“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.”

“Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.”

“Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace, to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among peoples and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt, both at home and abroad.”

“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."”

“Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.”

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

“May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.”

“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field.”

“Plans are nothing; planning is everything.”

“Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.”

“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.”

“You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.”

“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.”

“I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.”

“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.”

“Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.”

“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.”

“Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.”

“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.”

“Only Americans can hurt America.”

“War settles nothing.”

“Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.”

“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.”

“I deplore the need or the use of troops anywhere to get American citizens to obey the orders of constituted courts.”

“The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.”

“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.”

“The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.”

“There is no person in this room whose basic rights are not involved in any successful defiance to the carrying out of court orders.”

“The sergeant is the Army.”

“Pessimism never won any battle.”

“There is no victory at bargain basement prices.”

“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.”

“An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame - Southern Methodist University game and doesn't care who wins.”

“Things have never been more like the way they are today in history.”

“There are a number of things wrong with Washington. One of them is that everyone is too far from home.”

“Our forces saved the remnants of the Jewish people of Europe for a new life and a new hope in the reborn land of Israel. Along with all men of good will, I salute the young state and wish it well.”

“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 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.”

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”

“This world of ours... must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.”

“In the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy as a prisoner's chains.”

“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.”

“Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy.”

“We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.”

“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”

“I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.”