The Soviet Union has indeed been our greatest menace, not so much because of what it has done, but because of the excuses it has provided us for our failures.

To be a statesman, you must first get elected.

The exchange program is the thing that reconciles me to all the difficulties of political life.

There has been a tendency through the years for reason and moderation to prevail as long as things are going tolerably well or as long as our problems seem clear and finite and manageable.

Law is the essential foundation of stability and order both within societies and in international relations.

The price of empire is America's soul, and that price is too high.

I'm sure that President Johnson would never have pursued the war in Vietnam if he'd ever had a Fulbright to Japan, or say Bangkok, or had any feeling for what these people are like and why they acted the way they did. He was completely ignorant.

We have the power to do any damn fool thing we want to do, and we seem to do it about every 10 minutes.

Insofar as international law is observed, it provides us with stability and order and with a means of predicting the behavior of those with whom we have reciprocal legal obligations.

Once imbued with the idea of a mission, a great nation easily assumes that it has the means as well as the duty to do God's work.

The junior senator from Wisconsin, by his reckless charges, has so preyed upon the fears and hatreds and prejudices of the American people that he has started a prairie fire which neither he nor anyone else may be able to control.

In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.

The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust our own government statements. I had no idea until then that you could not rely on them.

The citizen who criticizes his country is paying it an implied tribute.

In our excessive involvement in the affairs of other countries, we are not only living off our assets and denying our own people the proper enjoyment of their resources; we are also denying the world the example of a free society enjoying its freedom to the fullest.

We must dare to think unthinkable thoughts.

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

The Soviet Union has indeed been our greatest menace, not so much because of what it has done, but because of the excuses it has provided us for our failures.

When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled.

Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence.

As a conservative power, the United States has a vital interest in upholding and expanding the reign of law in international relations.

There is an inevitable divergence between the world as it is and the world as men perceive it.

The cause of our difficulties in southeast Asia is not a deficiency of power but an excess of the wrong kind of power which results in a feeling of impotence when it fails to achieve its desired ends.

When we violate the law ourselves, whatever short-term advantage may be gained, we are obviously encouraging others to violate the law; we thus encourage disorder and instability and thereby do incalculable damage to our own long-term interests.

We are trying to remake Vietnamese society, a task which certainly cannot be accomplished by force and which probably cannot be accomplished by any means available to outsiders.

I do not question the power of our weapons and the efficiency of our logistics; I cannot say these things delight me as the y seem to delight some of our officials, but they are certainly impressive.

There are many respects in which America, if it can bring itself to act with the magnanimity and the empathy appropriate to its size and power, can be an intelligent example to the world.

In the name of noble purposes men have committed unspeakable acts of cruelty against one another.

What they fear, I think rightly, is that traditional Vietnamese society cannot survive the American economic and cultural impact.

There has been a strong tradition in this country that it is not the function of the military to educate the public on political issues.

The rapprochement of peoples is only possible when differences of culture and outlook are respected and appreciated rather than feared and condemned, when the common bond of human dignity is recognized as the essential bond for a peaceful world.

I do not question the power of our weapons and the efficiency of our logistics; I cannot say these things delight me as they seem to delight some of our officials, but they are certainly impressive.

Intolerance of dissent is a well-noted feature of the American national character.

Excuses change nothing, but make everyone feel better.

We need to hear the excuses men make to themselves for their worthlessness.

I do not believe in excuses. I believe in hard work as the prime solvent of life's problems.

Under the leadership of this President, the state of the union is not strong. We are being pulled apart rather than pulling together. Our democracy is suffering from the choices being made, and yet we are offered the same tired excuses and unrealistic analyses.

I'm not making any excuses. I got my butt kicked in certain games.

Bad excuses are worse than none.

If you really want to do it, you do it. There are no excuses.

I am not the kind of woman who excuses her mistakes while reminding us of what used to be.

These thieves defend themselves by saying, 'I was there all the time, and the officials missed me.' Favorite excuses for missing surveillance checkpoints: jacket covered the number took off the shirt with the number hidden in a crowd.

The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses.

I had arranged a birthday party for him and my children, who are all Aquarians. Instead, we got married. I ran out of excuses. It was just us and my children.

Ignorance of the law excuses no man from practicing it.

We first fought... in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change.

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.

People want a cop-out, listen I'm a realist and I talk about motivation, talk about all the things it takes to be greater or are important to win and people want to use excuses all the time.

Whether I get adequate attention or not, people here do know the work I have been doing systematically and without compromise for over 40 years. I get tired of people making excuses for guys who don't continue the art because they can't make a living.