Not making the baseball team at West Point was one of the greatest disappointments of my life, maybe my greatest.
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
The one quality that can be developed by studious reflection and practice is the leadership of men.
When shallow critics denounce the profit motive inherent in our system of private enterprise, they ignore the fact that it is an economic support of every human right we possess and without it, all rights would disappear.
Firmness in support of fundamentals, with flexibility in tactics and methods, is the key to any hope of progress in negotiation.
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group of course that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few other Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
As we peer into society’s future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
The time has passed for dilly-dallying. We must demand satisfactory performance.
Wars are stupid and they can start stupidly.
I don’t like the idea of something where you have to depend upon the integrity of the man and not the integrity of the institution.
Freedom has been defined as the opportunity for self-discipline.
We are ready in short, to dedicate our strength to serving the needs, rather than the fears, of the world.
Don’t be afraid to go to your library and read every book as long as any document does not offend your own ideas of decency.
Ideologen sind Leute, die glauben, dass die Menschheit besser sei als der Mensch.
True delegation implies the courage and readiness to back up a subordinate to the full; it is not to be confused with the slovenly practice of merely ignoring an unpleasant situation in the hope that someone else will handle it.
It seemed to me that constant stressing of the individual rights and privileges of American citizenship had overshadowed the equally important truth that such individualism can be sustained only so long as the citizen accepts his full responsibility for the welfare of the nation that protects him in the exercise of these rights.
They may excuse failure but they will not excuse abandonment.
The right to challenge a man’s judgment carries with it no automatic right to question his honor.
No battle was ever won according to plan, but no battle was ever won without one... Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.