Filter quotes by topic
Famous Dean Acheson Quotes
Source: Private thoughts on public affairs: a citizen looks at Congress, and a Democrat looks at his party
“With a nation, as with a boxer, one of the greatest assurances of safety is to add reach to power.”
“A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.”
“The trouble with a free market economy is that it requires so many policemen to make it work.”
“No man comes out of his own memorandum of conversation looking second best.”
“Greatness is a quality of character and is not the result of circumstances.”
Source: Affection and Trust: The Personal Correspondence of Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson, 1953-1971
“Controversial proposals, once accepted, soon become hallowed.”
Source: Real and Imagined Handicaps of Our Democracy in the Conduct of Its Foreign Relations: An Address, the Harry S. Truman Library, Institute for National and International Affairs
Source: Among friends: personal letters of Dean Acheson
“Great Britain has lost an Empire and has not yet found a role.”
Source: Strengthening the Forces of Freedom: Selected Speeches and Statements of Secretary of State Acheson, February 1949 - April 1950 [and Supplement May-June 1950].
