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Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotes

34th U.S. President

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Famous Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotes

“If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.”

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Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1956
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“A preventive war, to my mind, is an impossibility today. How could you have one if one of its features would be several cities lying in ruins, several cities where many, many thousands of people would be dead and injured and mangled, the transportation systems destroyed, sanitation implements and systems all gone? That isn't preventive war; that is war.”

PeopleIfsMindWarWould BeTodayLyingCitiesGoneDefenseDestroyedRuinsFeaturesImpossibilityInjuredTransportationSanitationPreventive War
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954
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“We must be strong at home if we are going to be strong abroad. We understand that. So we want to be strong at home in our morale or in our spirit, we want to be strong intellectually, in our education, in our economy and, where necessary, militarily.”

IfsWantWarHomeSpiritStrongEconomyDefenseMorale
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1956
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“Well, a funny thing, there are three that I like all for the same reason, golf, fishing, and shooting, and I do because first, they take you into the fields. There is mild exercise, the kind that an older individual probably should have. And on top of it, it induces you to take at any one time 2 or 3 hours, if you can, where you are thinking of the bird or that ball or the wily trout. Now, to my mind it is a very healthful, beneficial kind of thing, and I do it whenever I get a chance, as you well know.”

IfsThinkingKnowsShouldMindFirstsWellsKindReasonThreeIndividualSportsHoursChanceFieldsExerciseBirdShould HaveBallsGolfShootingFishingWhere You AreOne TimeBeneficialFunny ThingsTrout
Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“We have got to fight it [Communism] with something better, not try to conceal the thinking of our own people. They are part of America. And even if they think ideas that are contrary to ours, their right to say them, their right to record them, and their right to have them at places where they are accessible to others is unquestioned, or it isn't America.”

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Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“There is very little that our government or any government can do to plant the seeds of international understanding in the hearts and minds of people around the world. If people by the millions can reach out their hands in friendship and communicate directly warmth, personal interest and respect, it will be a real beginning in the struggle for a peaceful world.”

PeopleIfsWorldMindHeartLittlesRealHandsGovernmentUnderstandingInterestCan DoMillionsStrugglePlantInternationalCommunicateSeedsPeacefulAround The WorldWarmthReach OutHeart And MindPeaceful WorldPersonal Interest
Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“How can we appraise a proposal if the terms hurled at our ears can mean anything or nothing, and change their significance with the inflection of the voice? Welfare state, national socialism, radical, liberal, conservative, reactionary and a regiment of others ... these terms in today's usage, are generally compounds of confusion and prejudice. If our attitudes are muddled, our language is often to blame. A good tonic for clearer thinking is a dose of precise, legal definition.”

IfsThinkingMeanStatesTodayLanguageVoiceTermAttitudeEarsPrejudiceBlameDefinitionsConservativeSocialismConfusionRadicalWelfareSignificancePreciseProposalCompoundsDoseReactionariesUsageWelfare StateAppraise
Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“If we make ourselves worthy of America's ideals, if we do not forget that our nation was founded on the premise that all men are creatures of God's making, the world will come to know that it is free men who carry forward the true promise of human progress and dignity.”

IfsKnowsMenWorldHumansAmericaNationsForgetProgressPromiseCreaturesIdealsDignityWorthyPremisesFree ManHuman Progress
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959
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“What the church should be telling the worker is that the first demand religion makes on him is that he should be a good workman. If he is a carpenter he should be a competent carpenter. Church by all means on Sundays-but what is the use of church if at the very center of life a man defrauds his neighbor and insults God by poor craftsmanship.”

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Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“But we know that freedom cannot be served by the devices of the tyrant. As it is an ancient truth that freedom cannot be legislated into existence, so it is no less obvious that freedom cannot be censored into existence. And any who act as if freedoms defenses are to be found in suppression and suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien to America.”

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Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“make it a practice to avoid hating anyone. If someone's been guilty of despicable actions, especially toward me, I try to forget him. I used to follow a practice - somewhat contrived, I admit - to write the man's name on a piece of scrap paper, drop it into the lowest drawer of my desk, and say to myself: "That finishes the incident, and so far as I'm concerned, that fellow." The drawer became over the years a sort of private wastebasket for crumbled-up spite and discarded personalities.”

IfsMenWritingTryingYearsFeelingsActionUsedHateNamesBlackForgetPracticePiecesPersonalityPaperConcernedFellowsGuiltyUselessSpitePrivacyDesksLowestIncidentsScrapDrawersDiscardedDespicableForget Him
Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“The things I saw beggar description ... The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty, and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. In one room, where there were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. He said he would get sick if he did so. I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to "propaganda".”

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Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“If men can develop weapons that are so terrifying as to make the thought of global war include almost a sentence for suicide, you would think that man's intelligence and his comprehension... would include also his ability to find a peaceful solution.”

IfsThinkingMenWarPeaceAbilityMilitaryWeaponsSolutionsSuicideSentencesPeacefulComprehension
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1956
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“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.”

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Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“Some day there is going to be a man sitting in my present chair who has not been raised in the military services and who will have little understanding of where slashes in their estimates can be made with little or no damage. If that should happen while we still have the state of tension that now exists in the world, I shudder to think of what could happen in this country”

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Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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