Dean Acheson Quotes (23 Quotes)

The future comes one day at a time.

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.

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

When I walk into my office, the other portraits that I look at in addition to (Thomas) Jefferson, the portraits of George Marshall, but especially Dean Acheson.

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.

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

It is worse than immoral, it's a mistake.

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

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

I learned from the example of my father that the manner in which one endures what must be endured is more important than the thing that must be endured.

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

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

If we learn the art of yielding what must be yielded to the changing present, we can save the best of the past.

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

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

Controversial proposals, once accepted, soon become hallowed.

Always remember that the future comes one day at a time.

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

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

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.

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

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