Statesmen Quotes - Page 12

• Dozens of members of Congress will be retiring next month, and some should be missed. But there is only one Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma senator the Christian Science Monitor has dubbed 'a rabble-rousing statesman.'

  John Fund

  Christian, Oklahoma, Dozen

  "Coburn, a True Statesman, Steps Down" by John Fund, www.realclearpolitics.com. December 29, 2014.

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• One of our statesmen said, "The curse of this country is eloquent men."

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Country, Men, Said

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude”, p.38, Harvard University Press

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• Now he is a statesman, when what he really wants is to be what most reporters are, adult delinquents.

  Peggy Noonan

  Adults, Want, Journalism

  Peggy Noonan (1990). “What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era”, Random House (NY)

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• It is only natural that for any statesman at the helm of any government the question of his country's security should be a concern of the utmost importance.

  Eisaku Sato

  Country, Hair, Government

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• The statesmen still say that we should not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations and yet it is not possible any longer not to interfere, even when we do not mean to do so.

  Arthur Hays Sulzberger

  Mean, Affair, Should

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• The calculus of probabilities, when confined within just limits, ought to interest, in an equal degree, the mathematician, the experimentalist, and the statesman.

  Francois Arago

  Science, Degrees, Limits

  François Arago, Robert GRANT (F.R.A.S.), Baden Powell, William Henry SMYTH (Rear Admiral.) (1857). “Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men ... Translated by ... W. H. Smyth ... the Rev. Baden Powell ... and R. Grant”, p.235

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• And statesmen at her council met Who knew the seasons, when to take Occasion by the hand, and make The bounds of freedom wider yet.

  Alfred Lord Tennyson

  Freedom, Hands, Mets

  Alfred Tennyson Tennyson, Baron, Alfred Lord Tennyson (2014). “Fifty Poems”, p.2, Cambridge University Press

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• If the attainment of peace is the ultimate objective of all statesmen, it is, at the same time, something very ordinary, closely tied to the daily life of each individual.

  Eisaku Sato

  Objectivity, Ordinary, Daily Life

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• Get yourself a few ‘Dime a Dozen Generals,’ bid high in the ‘former statesmen lobby auction’, and put in your pocket one or two ‘ex-congressmen turned lobbyists’ who know the ropes when it comes to pocketing a few dozen who still serve.

  Sibel Edmonds

  Two, Pockets, Lobbyists

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• ARENA, n. In politics, an imaginary rat-pit in which the statesman wrestles with his record.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Pits, Records, Politics

  Ambrose Bierce (2004). “The Devil's Dictionaries: The Best of the Devil's Dictionary and the American Heretic's Dictionary”, p.20, See Sharp Press

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• He has given ample evidence of qualities hardly any other living statesman has demonstrated to the same degree: the courage to look facts in the face and to seek flexible solutions, respect for others, give-and-take in dialog situations, absence of hypocrisy, a complete absence of grandeur in the conduct of his personal life. He has never been driven by blind self-assertion to make absurd decisions.

  Alice Miller

  Self, Hypocrisy, Giving

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• The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For his supporters will push him to disaster unless his opponents show him where the dangers are. So if he is wise he will often pray to be delivered from his friends, because they will ruin him. But though it hurts, he ought also to pray never to be left without opponents; for they keep him on the path of reason and good sense.

  Walter Lippmann

  Wise, Hurt, Opponents

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• On September 17, 1914, Erzberger, the well-known German statesman, an eminent member of the Catholic Party, wrote to the Minister of War, General von Falkenhayn, "We must not worry about committing an offence against the rights of nations nor about violating the laws of humanity. Such feelings today are of secondary importance"? A month later, on October 21, 1914, he wrote in Der Tag, "If a way was found of entirely wiping out the whole of London it would be more humane to employ it than to allow the blood of A SINGLE GERMAN SOLDIER to be shed on the battlefield!"

  Georges Clemenceau

  War, Party, Rights

  "Grandeur and Misery of Victory". Book by Georges Clemenceau, trans. F. M. Atkinson, p. 279 (quoting Matthias Erzberger), 1930.

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• A man who is a politician at forty is a statesman at three score and ten. It is at this age, when he would be too old to be a clerk or a gardener or a police-court magistrate, that he is ripe to govern a country.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Country, Men, Police

  W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

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• It is seldom that statesmen have the option of choosing between a good and an evil.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Evil, Statesmanship

  Philip Dormer Stanhope (4th earl of Chesterfield.), Charles Caleb Colton (1861). “Lord Chesterfield's advice to his son on men and manners. To which are added, selections from Colton's 'Lacon'.”, p.230

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• Those who see and observe kings, heroes, and statesmen, discover that they have headaches, indigestion, humors and passions, just like other people; every one of which in their turns determine their wills in defiance of their reason.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Kings, Hero, Passion

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• Thus I live in the world rather as a Spectator of mankind, than as one of the species, by which means I have made myself a speculative statesman, soldier, merchant, and artisan, without ever meddling with any practical part of life.

  Joseph Addison

  Mean, Soldier, World

  1711 In The Spectator, no.1,1Mar.

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• It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe: Europe will be united by the Chinese.

  Charles de Gaulle

  Europe, Chinese, Politics

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• Some statesmen go to Congress and some go to jail. It is the same thing, after all.

  Eugene Field

  Jail, Congress

  Eugene Field (1967). “The complete Tribune primer”

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• Statesman only talk of fate when they have blundered

  Benito Mussolini

  Fate, Destiny

  Christopher Hibbert, Benito Mussolini (1962). “Benito Mussolini: a biography”

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• [Among the books he chooses, a statesman] ought to read interesting books on history and government, and books of science and philosophy; and really good books on these subjects are as enthralling as any fiction ever written in prose or verse.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Philosophy, Book, Science

  Theodore Roosevelt (2013). “Bully!”, p.257, Simon and Schuster

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• The great events of history are often due to secular changes in the growth of population and other fundamental economic causes, which, escaping by their gradual character the notice of contemporary observers, are attributed to the follies of statesmen or the fanaticism of atheists .

  John Maynard Keynes

  Atheist, Character, Escaping

  John Maynard Keynes (2016). “The Economic Consequences of the Peace”, p.15, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The great genius does not let his work be determined by the concrete finite conditions that surround him, whilst it is from these that the work of the statesman takes its direction and its termination. ... It is the genius in reality and not the other who is the creator of history, for it is only the genius who is outside and unconditioned by history.

  Otto Weininger

  Reality, Doe, Genius

  "Sex and Character" by Otto Weininger, (p. 139), 1906.

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• Whatever statesman or sage will effect reforms upon a gigantic or godlike scale must begin with the young.

  Horace Mann

  Reform, Sage, Young

  Horace Mann (1867). “Thoughts”, p.28

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• Statesmen remember things selectively.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Remember

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “The Other Wind”, p.87, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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