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.
War settles nothing.
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?
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.
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.
Our real problem, then, is not our strength today it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.
Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg.
The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth.
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.
Politics is a profession a serious, complicated and, in its true sense, a noble one.
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.
Oh, that lovely title, ex-president.
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.
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.
We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.
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.
Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.
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.
You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.