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Jeane Kirkpatrick

Jeane Kirkpatrick Quotes

United States Ambassador to the United Nations

Jeane Kirkpatrick was an American political scientist and diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 1981 to 1985. She was known for her conservative views and her role in shaping U.S. foreign policy during the Reagan administration.

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All Thinking Government People Political World Democracy Democrat States War Believe

Famous Jeane Kirkpatrick Quotes

“Neither nature, experience, nor probability informs these lists of 'entitlements', which are subject to no constraints except those of the mind and appetite of their authors.”

Mind Subjects Lists Appetite Probability Constraints Entitlement

Book:Human Rights and American Foreign Policy: Essays

Source: Human Rights and American Foreign Policy: Essays

“No idea holds greater sway in the minds of educated Americans that the belief that it is possible to democratize governments anytime and anywhere under any circumstances.”

Mind Ideas Government Belief Greater Circumstances Educated No Idea

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American Policy makers.”

Social Policy Army Structure Surprise Speed Makers Collapse Bureaucracy Social Structure Policy Makers

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Decades, if not centuries are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits. In Britain, the road [to democratic government] took seven centuries to traverse.”

People Ifs Government Democracy Century Habit Discipline Democratic Seven Decades Britain Acquire Democratic Government Traverse

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“I think that Ronald Reagan wanted to hear other people's views, and he always listened carefully, and from time to time he changed his own mind about a position. And especially he took pains to listen carefully to foreign leaders with whom he was dealing.”

People Thinking Mind Wanted Pain Views Leader Position Changed

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“For all their faults, right-wing authoritarian regimes more easily accept democratic reforms than left-wing totalitarian states.”

War States Left Accepting Cold Wings Democratic Faults Reform Regimes Cold War Right Wing Left Wing Totalitarian State

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Tyranny and anarchy are alike incompatible with freedom, security, and the enjoyment of opportunity.”

People Helping Opportunity Security Helping Others Tyranny Enjoyment Anarchy Helping Other People

Book:Political and moral dimensions

Source: Political and moral dimensions

“[The American position at the UN is] essentially impotent, without influence, heavily outvoted, and isolated.”

Government Influence Position Isolated

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Mr. President, we've taken off our "Kick Me" sign.”

President Taken Kicks American Politics

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“When the San Francisco Democrats treat foreign affairs as an afterthought, as they did, they behaved less like a dove or a hawk than like an ostrich - convinced it could shut out the world by hiding its head in the sand.”

World Treats Democrat Affair Convinced Sand Hiding American Politics San Francisco Dove Hawks Foreign Affairs Afterthought Ostriches

Book:Legitimacy and Force: State Papers and Current Perspectives: Volume 1: Political and Moral Dimensions

Source: Legitimacy and Force: State Papers and Current Perspectives: Volume 1: Political and Moral Dimensions

“It was not malaise we suffered from; it was Jimmy Carter - and Walter Mondale.”

American Politics Jimmy Carter Malaise Walter Mondale

Book:National and international dimensions

Source: National and international dimensions

“Society has never barred women from bread-winning roles, but only from economic roles that are profitable and respectable.”

Winning Roles Economic Bread Profitable Respectable

Book:Political woman

Source: Political woman

“All of us confront limits of body, talent, temperament. But that is not all. We are, all of us, also constrained by our time, our place, our civilization.”

Body Talent Civilization Limits Our Time Temperament

Book:The Reagan phenomenon, and other speeches on foreign policy

Source: The Reagan phenomenon, and other speeches on foreign policy

“Power ... is not an end in itself, but is an instrument that must be used toward an end.”

Ends Used Power Instruments

Book:National and international dimensions

Source: National and international dimensions

“Cultural constraints condition and limit our choices, shaping our characters with their imperatives.”

Character Choices Conditions Limits Imperatives Constraints Our Choices

Book:The Reagan phenomenon, and other speeches on foreign policy

Source: The Reagan phenomenon, and other speeches on foreign policy

“The absence of utopianism in the Constitution, law, and traditional political culture has been ... important in limiting expectations concerning what can be achieved by politics. The history of the last two centuries confirms what the framers of the Constitution understood: that the perfect is the enemy of the good, and the search for unalloyed virtue in public life leads to unalloyed terror.”

Has Beens Two Important Lasts Law Political Culture Perfect Enemy Virtue Century Expectations Understood Constitution Terror Absence Traditional Public Life Framers Political Culture

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Look, I don't even agree with myself at times.”

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“I was a woman in a man's world. I was a Democrat in a Republican administration. I was an intellectual in a world of bureaucrats. I talked differently. This may have made me a bit like an ink blot.”

Men World May Made Politics Bits Republican Intellectual Democrat Administration Ink Bureaucrats

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“I'm a political scientist and I study these things, and I know that economic problems, with the rising unemployment and inflation and low productivity and so forth, were a factor in that election, in that defeat of President Carter.”

Knows Problem Political President Study Economic Lows Scientist Election Defeat Productivity Factors Rising Unemployment Inflation Carter Economic Problems President Carter

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“I think that there is absolutely no free market in modern industrial states.”

Thinking States Modern Free Market

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“There is an absolutely fundamental hostility on the part of totalitarian regimes toward religion.”

Fundamentals Regimes Hostility Totalitarian Regimes

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“In the years just before... during the Carter years, the Soviets regularly violated, if you will, both the spirit and theletter of arms control agreements, I think, that they had negotiated during the period of detente.”

Ifs Thinking Years Spirit Arms Periods Agreement Carter Detente

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“We have war when at least one of the parties to a conflict wants something more than it wants peace.”

Want War Party Military Conflict Anti War Antiwar World War I Want Something Peace War No War World War 1 Just War World War One

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Vietnam presumably taught us that the United States could not serve as the world's policeman; it should also have taught us the dangers of trying to be the world's midwife to democracy when the birth is scheduled to take place under conditions of guerrilla war.”

World Should Trying War States United United States Democracy Conditions Military Danger Taught Birth Vietnam Policemen Vietnam War Taught Us Midwife Guerrillas

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“A government is not legitimate merely because it exists.”

Government Political Liberty Libertarian Government Programs

Book:Political and moral dimensions

Source: Political and moral dimensions

“History is a better guide than good intentions.”

Women History Intention Guides Good Intentions

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Straying off course is not recognized as a capital crime by civilized nations.”

Courses Nations Crime Aviation Civilized Air Power Airpower Civilized Nations

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal. Cross cultural experience teaches us not simply that people have different beliefs, but that people seek meaning and understand themselves in some sense as members of a cosmos ruled by God.”

People Persons Different Values Belief Teach Democracy Equal Members Crosses Conviction Cosmos Unshakable Different Beliefs

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“I conclude that it is a fundamental mistake to think that salvation, justice, or virtue come through merely human institutions.”

Thinking Humans Justice Mistake Virtue Institutions Fundamentals Salvation Umpires

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Americans need to face the truth about themselves, no matter how pleasant it is.”

Needs Matter Faces Pleasant Facing The Truth

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“What takes place in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving.”

Problem Political Effort Security Debate Problem Solving Council Security Council Political Debates

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“I think that it's always appropriate for Americans and for American foreign policy to make clear why we feel that self-government is most compatible with peace, the well-being of people, and human dignity”

People Thinking Feels Humans Wells Self Government Clear Policy Dignity Well Being Appropriate Foreign Policy Human Dignity Compatible Self-government American Foreign Policy

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“I believe that detente was having almost the opposite effect of what was intended. What was intended was to sort of end the contest for power and to stop Soviet expansion, especially by military means and the military build-up, the military contest”

Believe Mean Ends I Believe Effects Military Opposites Soviet Expansion Contests Detente

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“I always assume that democracy is the only good form of government, quite frankly, and democracy is always to be preferred”

Government Form Democracy Assuming Forms Of Government

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal”

Persons Values Democracy Equal Conviction Equality Unshakable

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“And I have no doubt that the American people generally believe the world is safer, and that we are safer, when we are stronger”

People World Believe Doubt Stronger No Doubt

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“A doctrine of class war seemed to provide a solution to the problem of poverty to people who know nothing about how wealth is created”

People Knows War Problem Wealth Class Poverty Solutions Doctrine Idaho

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“I don't think the government (of El Salvador) was responsible. The nuns were not just nuns; the nuns were political activists. We ought to be a little more clear-cut about this than we usually are. They were political activists on behalf of the Frente and somebody who is using violence to oppose the Frente killed them.”

Thinking Littles Government Political Clear Cutting Violence Ought Responsible Activist Behalf Nun El Salvador

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Truth, which is important to a scholar, has to be concrete. And there is nothing more concrete than dealing with babies, burps and bottles, frogs and mud.”

Important Baby Bottles Scholar Concrete Mud Frogs

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Words can destroy. What we call each other ultimately becomes what we think of each other, and it matters.”

Thinking Matter Language Healing Conflict

Book:National and international dimensions

Source: National and international dimensions

“Solidarity was the movement that turned the direction of history, I think.”

Thinking Movement Solidarity

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Democrats can't get elected unless things get worse-and things won't get worse unless they get elected.”

Political Republican Humorous Program Democrat Government Programs

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Maturity is when we live by the truths that are in our heart and soul, truths we believe to be right for us.”

Believe Heart Soul Maturity Live By Heart And Soul

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“Just as the Russians and the Soviets didn't manage to wipe out languages in Lithuania, neither have they managed to wipe out religion to the extent that we had feared.”

Language Manage Eyebrows Wipe Lithuania

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“When Marxist dictators shoot their way into power in Central America, the Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies, they blame United States' policies of one hundred years ago, but then they always blame America first.”

Way Years Firsts War States America United United States Policy Cold Hundred Years Ago Blame Democrat Allies Soviet Dictator Cold War Marxist Guerrillas Central America

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“They (american press) always blame America first!”

Firsts America Blame Presses Central America

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues, the San Francisco Democrats didn't blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States.”

States Politics United United States Issues Arms Blame Unions Democrat Soviet Soviet Union Negotiation San Francisco

Book:National and international dimensions

Source: National and international dimensions

“The real point is that totalitarian regimes have claimed jurisdiction over the whole person, and the whole society, and they don't at all believe that we should give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's.”

Giving Should Believe Persons Real Whole Regimes Jurisdiction Whole Person Totalitarian Regimes

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“That is simply that Marxism has been tremendously fashionable in our time, so it has infected a very large number of major institutions in many countries of the world. So I suppose that we shouldn't be too surprised that it should infect the church as well.”

World Should Wells Has Beens Country Church Numbers Majors Institutions Our Time Marxism Fashionable Large Numbers Countries Of The World

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“There is no pure free-market economy.”

Economy Pure Free Market Market Economy

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

About the Author

Born: November 19, 1926
Died: December 7, 2006
Known for: United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Quotes: 51

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Thinking Government People Political World Democracy Democrat States War Believe

Popular Topics

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Books & Sources

National and international dimensionsRelated source material

Political and moral dimensionsRelated source material

The Reagan phenomenon, and other speeches on foreign policyRelated source material

Human Rights and American Foreign Policy: EssaysRelated source material

Legitimacy and Force: State Papers and Current Perspectives: Volume 1: Political and Moral DimensionsRelated source material

Political womanRelated source material

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