Statesmen Quotes

We will go down in history either as the world's greatest statesmen or its worst villains.

Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.

The role of the scholar is to destroy chimeras, that of the statesman is to make use of them.

In order to save the 40,000,000 inhabitants of the United Kingdom from a bloody civil war, we colonial statesmen must acquire new lands to settle the surplus population, to provide new markets. [...] The Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and butter question.

The opportunist thinks of me and today. The statesman thinks of us and tomorrow.

We have not all had the good fortune to be ladies.

We have not all been generals, or poets, or statesmen; but when the toast works down to the babies, we stand on common ground.

There are certain basic principles regarding the proper role of government.

If principles are correct, then they can be applied to any specific proposal with confidence... The true statesman values principle above popularity, and works to create popularity for those political principles which are wise and just.

Why is war such an easy option? Why does peace remain such an elusive goal? We know statesmen skilled at waging war, but where are those dedicated enough to humanity to find a way to avoid war

I regard it (the Constitution) as the work of the purest patriots and wisest statesman that ever existed, aided by the smiles of a benign Providence; it almost appears a "Divine interposition in our behalf... the hand that destroys our Constitution rends our Union asunder forever.

The statesman must think in terms of the national interest, conceived as power among other powers. The popular mind, unaware of the fine distinctions of the statesman's thinking, reasons more often than not in the simple moralistic and legalistic terms of absolute good and absolute evil.

A rule that may serve for a statesman, a courtier, or a lovernever make a defence or an apology before you be accused.

Politicians all too often think about the next election. Statesmen think about the next generation.

Given a short time with a psycho-politician you can alter forever the loyalty of a soldier in our hands or a statesman or a leader in his own country, or you can destroy his mind.

The mother is the one supreme asset of national life;

she is more important by far than the successful statesman, or business man, or artist, or scientist.

An astronomer must be cosmopolitan, because ignorant statesmen cannot be expected to value their services

And when statesman or others worry [the scientist] too much, then he should leave with his possessions.

Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men.

Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.

It is only natural that for any statesman at the helm of any government the question of his country's security should be a concern of the utmost importance.

I'm a man of some intelligence. I've had some education, passed the bar, practiced law. I've been a teacher and I deal with men of substance, statesman, business leaders, the clergy... So why do I spend my time arguing with Dizzy Dean?

Statesman are suspected of plotting against mankind, rather than consulting their interests, and are esteemed more crafty than learned.

And when statesmen or others worry him [the scientist] too much, then he should leave with his possessions. With a firm and steadfast mind one should hold under all conditions, that everywhere the earth is below and the sky above and to the energetic man, every region is his fatherland.

A politician thinks of the next election;

a statement of the next generation. A politician looks for the success of his party; a statesman for that of his country. The statesman wishes to steer, while the politician is satisfied to drift.

We need not take refuge in supernatural gods to explain our saints and sages and heroes and statesmen, as if to explain our disbelief that mere unaided human beings could be that good or wise.

History is no longer just a chronicle of kings and statesmen, of people who wielded power, but of ordinary women and men engaged in manifold tasks. Women's history is an assertion that women have a history.

In the same way that we need statesmen to spare us the abjection of exercising power, we need scholars to spare us the abjection of learning.

Midas, they say, possessed the art of old;

Of turning whatsoe'er he touch'd to gold; This modern statesmen can reverse with ease - Touch them with gold, they'll turn to what you please.

A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.

Statesman only talk of fate when they have blundered

It would be a serious mistake to replace a seasoned statesman with a tempermental tycoon who has no respect for the constitution.

At 82, Nelson (who wrote the song "On the Road Again," among a thousand or more others) is the elder statesman of country music, a steadying and powerful voice in the industry and on environmental issues, and he's still on the road much of the year. The music keeps calling.

It is certain that the greatest poets, orators, statesmen, and historians, men of the most brilliant and imposing talents, have labored as hard, if not harder, than day laborers; and that the most obvious reason why they have been superior to other men is that they have taken more pains than other men.

A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the nation.

A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.

A statesman who shakes the fruit trees of his neighbors - to dislodge the worms.

One might be led to question whether the scientists acted wisely in presenting the statesmen of the world with this appalling problem. Actually there was no choice. Once basic knowledge is acquired, any attempt at preventing its fruition would be as futile as hoping to stop the earth from revolving around the sun.