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Dwight D. Eisenhower

157 quotes

“It is unwise to make education too cheap. If everything is provided freely, there is a tendency to put no value on anything. Education must always have a certain price on it; even as the very process of learning itself must always require individual effort and initiative.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at the Centennial Celebration Banquet of the National Education Association (4 April 1957)
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a speech to the National Defense Executive Reserve Conference in Washington, D.C. (November 14, 1957) ; in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957, National Archives and Rec…
“You just can't have this kind of war. There aren't enough bulldozers to scrape the bodies off the streets.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In 1957, as quoted in No Use: Nuclear Weapons and U.S. National Security, by Thomas M. Nichols.
“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight — it's the size of the fight in the dog.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks at Republican National Committee Breakfast (31 January 1958); Eisenhower here delivers his particular variation of a pre-existing proverb, which has since become widely dispersed as simply "It's not the size of …
“I do not believe that all of these problems can be solved just by a new law, or something that someone says, with teeth in it. For example, when we got into the Little Rock thing, it was not my province to talk about segregation or desegregation. I had the job of supporting a federal court that had issued a proper order under the Constitution, and where compliance was prevented by action that was unlawful.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Presidential news conference (26 March 1958)
“If civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Presidential Statement on the Observation of Law Day (30 April 1958)
“We believe in the principle that governments are properly established only when it is with the consent of the governed.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to American Field Service Students (15 July 1958)
“Q. Edward T. Folliard, Washington Post: Mr. President, I'd like to go back to Mr. Smith's question, but quote what you said in Los Angeles. After saying that the Democratic Party was dominated by political radicals, you said, "Either we choose leftwing government or sensible government, spendthrift government or responsible government.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dwight D. Eisenhower 1958 : containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the president, January 1 to December 31, 1958, The President’s News Conference of November 5, 1958, P.828
“In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader 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. 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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Stories for Talks with Boys and Girls (1958) by J. A. Cheley, p. 106; this is the earliest publication of this yet located; also in Quote Unquote (1977), edited by Lloyd Cary, p. 177, and many later publica…
“Mr. Horer: Mr. President, as you; know, we have; many; questions here. I would like to shift, if you; please, sir, to a topic, a favorite of all of us-politics. You said; at a recent press conference that your political philosophy has not changed. Nevertheless, many people say you have drifted away from Modem Republicanism toward traditional Republican conservatism. Would you explain this, sir?”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dwight D. Eisenhower 1959 : containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the president, January 1 to December 31, 1959, Remarks and Discussion at the National Press Club. January 14, 1959, P.23
“In many ways, from cutting budget, reducing expenses, keeping down, for example, in every field that I know, we have tried to be on the conservative, middle-of-the-road side. But that has not apparently been publicized sufficiently.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dwight D. Eisenhower 1959 : containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the president, January 1 to December 31, 1959, The President’s News Conference of July 29, 1959, P.552
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Nikita Khrushchev (13 April 1959, published 20 April 1959)
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: TV talk with Prime Minister Macmillan (31 August 1959)
“Oh, goddammit, we forgot the silent prayer.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark at a cabinet meeting, as quoted in Since 1945 : Politics and Diplomacy in Recent American History (1979) by Robert A. Divine, p. 55
“I do have one instruction for you, General. Do something about that damned football team.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said to William Westmoreland in 1960 when Westmoreland assumed the post of Superintendent of West Point.
Also quoted by: 艾森豪威尔 (zh)
“I believe that the United States as a government, if it is going to be true to its own founding documents, does have the job of working toward that time when there is no discrimination made on such inconsequential reason as race, color, or religion.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Presidential news conference (13 May 1959)
“This faith rules our whole way of life. It decrees that we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve. It asserts that we have the right to choice of our own work and to the reward of our own toil. It inspires the initiative that makes our productivity the wonder of the world. And it warns that any man who seeks to deny equality among all his brothers betrays the spirit of the free and invites the mockery of the tyrant.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No free people can for long cling to any privilege or enjoy any safety in economic solitude. For all our own material might, even we need markets in the world for the surpluses of our farms and our factories. Equally, we need for these same farms and factories vital materials and products of distant lands. This basic law of interdependence, so manifest in the commerce of peace, applies with thousand-fold intensity in the event of war. So we are persuaded by necessity and by belief that the strength of all free peoples lies in unity; their danger, in discord.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yet the promise of this life is imperiled by the very genius that has made it possible. Nations amass wealth. Labor sweats to create—and turns out devices to level not only mountains but also cities. Science seems ready to confer upon us, as its final gift, the power to erase human life from this planet.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Realizing that common sense and common decency alike dictate the futility of appeasement, we shall never try to placate an aggressor by the false and wicked bargain of trading honor for security. Americans, indeed all free men, remember that in the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the firm duty of each of our free citizens and of every free citizen everywhere to place the cause of his country before the comfort, the convenience of himself.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Recognizing economic health as an indispensable basis of military strength and the free world's peace, we shall strive to foster everywhere, and to practice ourselves, policies that encourage productivity and profitable trade. For the impoverishment of any single people in the world means danger to the well-being of all other peoples.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Conceiving the defense of freedom, like freedom itself, to be one and indivisible, we hold all continents and peoples in equal regard and honor. We reject any insinuation that one race or another, one people or another, is in any sense inferior or expendable.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Respecting the United Nations as the living sign of all people's hope for peace, we shall strive to make it not merely an eloquent symbol but an effective force. And in our quest for an honorable peace, we shall neither compromise, nor tire, nor ever cease.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union (2 February 1953)
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The free world knows, out of the bitter wisdom of experience, that vigilance and sacrifice are the price of liberty.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The hunger for peace is too great, the hour in history too late, for any government to mock men's hopes with mere words and promises and gestures. [...] There is, before all peoples, a precarious chance to turn the black tide of events. If we failed to strive to seize this chance, the judgment of future ages will be harsh and just. If we strive but fail and the world remains armed against itself, it at least would need be divided no longer in its clear knowledge of who has condemned humankind to this fate.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe the only way to protect my own rights is to protect the rights of others.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We love America. Why are we proud? We are proud, first of all, because from the beginning of this nation, a man can walk upright, no matter who he is, or who she is. He can walk upright and meet his friend — or his enemy; and he does not fear that because that enemy may be in a position of great power that he can be suddenly thrown in jail to rot there without charges and with no recourse to justice. We have the habeas corpus act and we respect it.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would not want to sit down this evening without urging one thing: if we are going to continue to be proud that we are Americans, there must be no weakening of the code by which we have lived; by the right to meet your accuser face to face, if you have one; by your right to go to the church or the synagogue or even the mosque of your own choosing; by your right to speak your mind and be protected in it.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The gravity of the time is such that every new avenue of peace, no matter how dimly discernible, should be explored.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our time of national political debate is almost ended. The clamor of these days will soon subside. And your day of thoughtful decision swiftly nears.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All the historic precedents, the soaring graphs, the staggering statistics—these measure size more than substance. And the largeness and greatness of our nation would be almost a mockery—without a matching greatness of heart and largeness of vision as we look out upon the world.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of these greater things I speak to you tonight. It seems to me right to do so here, in Philadelphia, where our forefathers defined the principles by which our nation was born and has ever lived.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In such a world—at such a time---"a decent respect for the opinion of mankind"—in the words of our Declaration of Independence—requires that we state plainly the purposes we seek, the principles we hold.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In June of 1776, Richard Henry Lee, rising before the Continental Congress to move his resolution for American independence, declared: "The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us; she demands of us a living example of freedom.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One hundred eighty years later, we know that the eyes of the world are fixed upon us. And we must ask ourselves: what kind of an example of freedom do we give to our age? What are the true marks of our America—and what do they mean to the world?”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are a people born of many peoples. Our culture, our skills, our very aspirations have been shaped by immigrants—and their sons and daughters—from all the earth. Sam Gompers from England, Andrew Carnegie from Scotland, Albert Einstein from Germany—and Booker T. Washington and Al Smith—Marconi and Caruso—men of all nations and races and estates—they have made us what we are.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men like these—men by the millions—have deepened and defined our very understanding of what is true and just in the wide world from which they came. We know—as our forefathers knew—the firm ground on which our beliefs must stand. Freedom is rooted in the certainty that the brotherhood of all men springs from the Fatherhood of God. And thus, even as each man is his brother's keeper, no man is another's master.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So it is that the laws most binding us as a people are laws of the spirit—proclaimed in church and synagogue and mosque. These are the laws that truly declare the eternal equality of all men, of all races, before the man-made laws of our land. And we are profoundly aware that—in the world—we can claim the trust of hundreds of millions of people, across Africa and Asia—only as we ourselves hold high the banner of justice for all.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are—proudly—a people with no sense of class or caste. We judge no man by his name or inheritance, but by what he does—and for what he stands.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The right of no nation depends upon the date of its birth or the size of its power. As there can be no second class citizens before the law of America, so—we believe—there can be no second-class nations before the law of the world community.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source