Quotes

The grim fact is that we prepare for war like precocious giants and for peace like retarded pygmies.

As one who has known both the shelter of academic halls and the anonymous security of the civil service, I have at times had my own doubts about the wisdom of venturing forth, with wary shield and uncertain sword, among the lions in the open forum of party politics. But that's where the action is today. Without action we can't make progress, no matter how brilliant our thoughts may be. (1967)

I had none of the gifts of the actor who can play on people's emotions and produce the mass frenzy that leads not only to irrational support for good causes, but also for causes evil and dangerous. I have always suspected and distrusted those who could arouse the masses by working on their emotions, turning favor into frenzy, support into hysteria, and normally rational human beings into howling mobs. . . . But the exaggerated appeal to fanaticism, to a false and deceptive hope, or to a vision which cannot possibly be realized can result only in disillusionment -- this kind of thing, so common in today's politics, I have always disliked and distrusted, almost as much as I have abhorred the marketing of politicians and policies as though they were detergents or deodorants. (1972)

There can be no enduring and creative peace if people are unfree. The instinct for personal and national freedom cannot be destroyed, and the attempt to do so by totalitarian and despotic governments will ultimately make not only for internal trouble but for international conflict. (1957)