George F. Kennan Short Quotes

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A guest of one's time and not a member of its household.

George F. Kennan
Fig leaves of democratic procedure to hide the nakedness of Stalinist dictatorship.

George F. Kennan
Every attempt at social leveling ends with leveling to the bottom, never to the top.

George F. Kennan
Instruments of coercion, once created, have a tendency to find their own natural masters.

George F. Kennan
Although the Georgian nationalists do not like Stalin, they have every reason to be thankful to him.

George F. Kennan
I have never been any good at training children or dogs; that is why I am no good at training myself.

George F. Kennan
The best thing we can do if we want the Russians to let us be Americans is to let the Russians be Russian.

George F. Kennan
Perfect discipline requires recognition of infallibility. Infallibility requires the observance of discipline.

George F. Kennan
Public opinion, or what passes for public opinion, is not invariably a moderating force in the jungle of politics.

George F. Kennan
California reminds me of the popular American Protestant concept of heaven: there is always a reasonable flow of new arrivals.

George F. Kennan
A war regarded as inevitable or even probable, and therefore much prepared for, has a very good chance of being eventually fought.

George F. Kennan
A political society does not live to conduct foreign policy; it would be more correct to say that it conducts foreign policy in order to live.

George F. Kennan
The truth is sometimes a poor competitor in the market place of ideas – complicated, unsatisfying, full of dilemmas, always vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse.

George F. Kennan
The main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.

George F. Kennan
Popular revolt against a ruthless, experienced modern dictatorship, which enjoys a monopoly over weapons and communications,... is simply not a possibility in the modern age.

George F. Kennan
The Russian leaders are keen judges of human psychology, and as such they are highly conscious that loss of temper and of self-control is never a source of strength in political affairs.

George F. Kennan