Statesman Quotes

Most people are vain, so I try to ensure that any author who comes to stay will find at least one of their books in their room.

Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire

The worst enemy of science is also the bitterest enemy of democracy, cest le clericalisme. The interests of science and the interests of democracy are one.

I think Scowcroft has done us all a great favor by his article saying don't do it. My own personal view is that basically General Scowcroft is correct. Unless the president can make a very compelling case that Saddam Hussein has his finger on a weapon of mass destruction and is about ready to use it, I do not think that now is the time to go to war against Saddam Hussein.

Lawrence Eagleburger

I have a curious and apprehensive feeling as I watch JFK that he is sort of an Indian snake charmer.

For you are well aware that it is not only by bodily exercises, by educational institutions, or by lessons in music, that our youth are trained, but much more effectually by public examples.

Cadres should be capable of climbing upward and going downward, advancing and retreating, serving as officials and acting as ordinary citizens.

All these threatening storms, which, like impregnate Clouds, hover o'er our heads, will (when they once are grasp'd but by the eye of reason) melt into fruitful showers of blessings on the people.

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

When stars are in the quiet skies, Then most I pine for thee; Bend on me then thy tender eyes, As stars look on the sea.

Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton

Oppression makes wise men mad; but the distemper is still the madness of the wise, which is better than the sobriety of fools.

A Pack of Spanish Lies sent abroad in the world, first printed in the Spanish tongue, and translated out of the original. Now ripped up, unfolded and by just examination condemned, as containing false, corrupt and detestable wares worthy to be damned and burned.

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

On the contrary, all the world would point to that nation as violating a treaty, by going to war with a country with whom they had engaged to enter into arbitration.

[I am] A Subject and born to obey laws... The trial of all laws only consisteth in honest and probable witness.

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex

He gave himself diligently to mathematics, which he liked "vastly." "I believe they are useful," he writes, "and I am sure they are entertaining, which is alone enough to recommend them to me."

Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all of the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

Frederick Douglass

In the name of religion many great and fine deeds have been performed. In the name of religion also, thousands and millions have been killed, and every possible crime has been committed.

Jawaharlal Nehru

"It is more than a crime; it is a political fault," —words which I record, because they have been repeated and attributed to others.

He was uniformly of an opinion which, though not a popular one, he was ready to aver, that the right of governing was not property, but a trust.

Charles James Fox

Most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done.

There is no security for any power unless it be a security in which its neighbours have an equal share.

Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon

Let this sad tale of death never be told without a tear: let every parent tell the shameful story to his listening children, till tears of pity glisten in their eyes, or boiling passion shakes their tender frames.

No nation ever yet found any inconvenience from too close an inspection into the conduct of its officers, but many have been brought to ruin and reduced to slavery by suffering gradual impositions and abuses.

Edward Livingston

To say that a bad government must be established for fear of anarchy is really saying that we should kill ourselves for fear of dying.

Richard Henry Lee

It is the flag just as much of the man who was naturalized yesterday as of the man whose people have been here many generations.

Henry Cabot Lodge

The Empire of China is an old, crazy, first-rate Man of War, which a fortunate succession of able and vigilant officers have contrived to keep afloat for these hundred and fifty years past, and to overawe their neighbours merely by her bulk and appearance. But whenever an insufficient man happens to have the command on deck, adieu to the discipline and safety of the ship. She may, perhaps, not sink outright; she may drift some time as a wreck, and will then be dashed to pieces on the shore; but she can never be rebuilt on the old bottom.

George Macartney

As a military man who has given half a century of active Service, I say in all sincerity that the nuclear arms race has no military purpose. Wars cannot be fought with nuclear weapons. Their existence only adds to our perils because of the illusions which they have generated. There are powerful voices around the world who still give evidence to the old Roman precept—if you desire peace, prepare for war. This is absolute nuclear nonsense.

Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma