Dwight Eisenhower

“This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“I deplore the need or the use of troops anywhere to get American citizens to obey the orders of constituted courts.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“If you are waging peace, you can’t be too particular sometimes about the special attitudes that different countries take.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“How far have we come in man’s long pilgrimage from darkness toward light? Are we nearing the light—a day of freedom and of peace for all mankind? Or are the shadows of another night closing in upon us?” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Few women, I fear, have had such a reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“History teaches that when powerful despots can gain something through aggression, they try, by the same methods, to gain more and more and more.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“In most communities it is illegal to cry ‘fire’ in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“We should take nothing for granted.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Without God, there could be no American form of government nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first and most basic expression of Americanism.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“I have only one yardstick by which I test every major problem, and that yardstick is—is it good for America?” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“You do not lead by hitting people over the head—that’s assault, not leadership.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“We must achieve both security and solvency. In fact, the foundation of military strength is economic strength.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“I believe that without free enterprise there can be no democracy.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Wars are stupid and they can start stupidly.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Get it all on record now—get the films, get the witnesses—because somewhere down the road of history, some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“It is far more important to be able to hit the target than it is to haggle over who makes a weapon or who pulls a trigger.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight—it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The free world must not prove itself worthy of its own past.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Pessimism never won any battle.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“All generalizations are inaccurate, including this one.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Some people wanted champagne and caviar when they should have had beer and hot dogs.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Ankles are nearly always neat and good-looking, but knees are nearly always not.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Never send a battalion to take a hill if a regiment is available.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Neither a wise nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go to your library and read every book.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing. I told him I wanted to be a real Major League baseball player—a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he’d like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“We are ready in short, to dedicate our strength to serving the needs, rather than the fears, of the world.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

is no victory at bargain basement prices.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Never let yourself be persuaded that any one great man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader and 158 million followers, it will no longer be America.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days, governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“In the final choice, a soldier’s pack is not so heavy as a prisoner’s chains.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The purpose is clear—it is safety with solvency. The country is entitled to both.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Never question another man’s motive. His wisdom, yes; but not his motives.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“I like to believe that people, in the long run, are going to do more to promote peace than our governments.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can—only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“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.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The best morale exists when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Never waste a minute thinking about people you don’t like.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“No man is worth your tears, but once you find one that is, he won’t make you cry.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“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.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The world could be fixed of its problems if every child understood the necessity of their existence.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“They may excuse failure but they will not excuse abandonment.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The history of free men is never written by chance but by choice—their choice.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“There is no person in this room whose basic rights are not involved in any successful defiance to the carrying out of court orders.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The problem is not merely man against man or nation against nation. It is man against war.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“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.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Those who take the extreme positions in American political and economic life are always wrong.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Leadership is a word and a concept that has been more argued than almost any other I know.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“How has retirement affected my golf game? A lot more people beat me now.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“When you put on a uniform, there are certain inhibitions that you accept.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men; and so, it must be daily earned and refreshed—else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“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.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“I made two mistakes and both of them are sitting on the Supreme Court.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“I have found out in later years that my family was very poor, but the glory of America is that we didn’t know it.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“There’s no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The qualities of a great man are vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Pull the string and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“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.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Dollars and guns are no substitutes for brains and will power.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame! You give love a bad name.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed—those who are cold and are not clothed.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“We have heard much of the phrase, ‘peace and friendship.’ This phrase, in expressing the aspiration of America, is not complete. We should say instead, ‘peace and friendship, in freedom.’ This, I think, is America’s real message to the rest of the world.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Always try to associate yourself with and learn as much as you can from those who know more than you do, who do better than you, who see more clearly than you.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Freedom has been defined as the opportunity for self-discipline.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“I’m saving that rocker for the day when I feel as old as I really am.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Statesmanship is developed in the hard knocks of general experience, private and public.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame Southern Methodist University game and doesn’t care who wins.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Only Americans can hurt America.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Worry is a word that I don’t allow myself to use.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Through knowledge and understanding, we will drive from the temple of freedom all those who seek to establish over us thought control, whether they be agents of a foreign state or demagogues thirsty for personal power and public notice.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“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.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower

“The time has passed for dilly-dallying. We must demand satisfactory performance.” ~ Dwight Eisenhower