Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth.
There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.
An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.
The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it's usually lousy.
Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.
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.
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
The most terrible job in warfare is to be a second lieutenant leading a platoon when you are on the battlefield.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.
The supreme quality for leadership 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.
You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.
If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.
Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.
Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.
Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.
Politics is a profession; a serious, complicated and, in its true sense, a noble one.
Oh, that lovely title, ex-president.
Few women, I fear, have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.
The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.
Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.
The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give it to them.
I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.
Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.
