Quotes by Dean Acheson

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.

A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.

Between 9 and 10 AM the American radio is concerned almost exclusively with love. It seems a little like ending breakfast with a stiff bourbon.

Controversial proposals, once accepted, soon become hallowed.

Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role.

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

I will undoubtedly have to seek what is happily known as gainful employment, which I am glad to say does not describe holding public office.

Negotiating in the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

The great corrupter of public man is the ego. Looking at the mirror distracts one's attention from the problem.

The greatest mistake I made was not to die in office.

The manner in which one endures what must be endured is more important than the thing that must be endured.

The most important aspect of the relationship between the president and the secretary of state is that they both understand who is president.

Time spent in the advertising business seems to create a permanent deformity like the Chinese habit of foot-binding.

Washington is like a self-sealing tank on a military aircraft. When a bullet passes through, it closes up.

We have actively sought and are actively seeking to make the United Nations an effective instrument of international cooperation.

You see, you all start with the premise that democracy is some good. I don't think it's worth a damn. I think Churchill is right, the only thing to be said for democracy is that there is nothing else that's any better, and therefore he used to say, Tyranny tempered by assassination, but lots of assassination. People say, If the Congress were more representative of the people it would be better. I say the Congress is too damn representative. It's just as stupid as the people are; just as uneducated, just as dumb, just as selfish. You know the Congress is a perfect example, and created to be a perfect example.

No people in history have ever survived who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies.