Quotes from past Lectures
1937
"In the economic field new problems have arisen through the
concentration of wealth and corporate control, and the difficulty of
equating the tremendous power and diversity of production with the vast
unsatisfied surging of demand has resulted in the most spectacular and
disturbing breakdown of the industrial machine in modern times. Yet
these developments cannot obscure the triumph of the much-criticized
economic system in reaching new heights of productive capacity and
making possible standards of living unthought of in earlier
days...After all, if millions have been unemployed, millions have been
aided to maintain a measure of decent comfort which before the
industrial era would have been regarded as fabled luxury."
Oscar D. Skelton, undersecretary for foreign affairs for the Dominion of Canada
1939
"The policy of excessive protectionism is like a habit-forming drug.
Nations once indulging in it go on from excess to excess; and the
appetite increases. But the end of unrestrained indulgence is disaster.
Economic nationalism and protectionism spell disaster for the world as
well as for the nation...Men will fight before they starve. Uneconomic
trade barriers forge the thunderbolts of war."
Frances B. Sayre, former high commissioner to the Philippines
1940
"It is, you see, upon the elemental and universal fact
of conflict that the legislative way of life is built; it is
inescapable conflict which makes legislation necessary and which alone
renders tolerable its imperfections...The legislature...is a body
collective made necessary by unavoidable conflict and rendered possible
by a certain state of mind...which holds competition (in ideas, between
ideals, and among persons) to be itself a standard and fruitful form of
cooperation."
T.V. Smith, member of Congress and professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago
1941
"The men who ruled democratic Europe before the second World
War...never understood that peace is not a negative state maintaining
itself automatically in the absence of war. The work of maintaining
peace is hard, positive work. Even without criminals like Hitler and
adventurers like Mussolini, there is always danger of war in the world
because the instincts of war are not yet completely destroyed. That is
why peace is not merely an absence of hostilities -- as the Baldwins
and the Neville Chamberlains thought of it -- but it is the continuous
creation of international solidarities."
Count Carlo Sforza, former Italian ambassador to China, to Turkey and to France, and subsequently Italian minister of foreign affairs
1946
"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain
has descended across the Continent."
Winston Churchill
1949
"For years the conviction has been growing upon me that
the most fruitful source of our personal and national well-being lies
buried deep in two fundamental institutions which, under the Divinely
ordained scheme of things, mold our lives and destinies. First in point
of time, and foremost in degree and power of influence, is the
home...Next to the home as a teacher of correct human relations stands
the church."
J.C. Penney, merchant
1950
"We have always known that the judicial process does not
at all times and in all places conform absolutely and in all respects
to our ideal of it...But the striving for the ideal, I repeat, goes far
to realize the ideal. It is the approximation to our ideal of it which
is significant, not the fallings short, which we seek continually to
control and to reduce to a minimum."
Roscoe Pound, dean emeritus of Harvard Law School
1953
"The non-communist world can meet communism only if it
develops the courage to bring forth its deepest spiritual values which
alone contain the true universal. The falsehoods and perfect
stupidities of communism become apparent only when a man comes face to
face with the deepest the mind has known and the spirit has been in
history."
Charles H. Malik, ambassador of Lebanon
1954
"Today crude and sinister men are trying to destroy this concept
[freedom of thought], and to shake the very foundations of our freedom
based on the due process of law. Witch hunters are on the loose again,
often cloaked with immunity, and armed with subpoenas and the cruel
whiplash of unevaluated gossip...In making this fight [against
communism], we should be sure that we do not fall into the trap of
adopting the totalitarian tactics of the communists themselves."
Harry S. Truman, former U.S. president
1954
"If the dire prophecies of the President's report on
higher education, which surmised that the days of the independent
college are numbered, comes true, it would be a catastrophe that will
spell doom for free enterprise and of our nation as a free democracy.
Nothing will remain but the socialist state, if the independent
colleges lose their independence by seeking and obtaining federal aid."
Dr. Guy E. Snavely, former executive secretary of the Association of American Colleges
1958
"To believe that there is no truth is to believe that it
is true that there is no truth. This is to believe what one does not
believe, and I am not convinced that anyone can do that. Though for us
absolute truth, or the whole truth about anything, is never achieved,
progress toward it can be real."
Dr. Edward McCrady, vice chancellor and president of the University of the South
1960
"I would say that if we are in the end to win over the
rest of the world to our way of thinking...we must first endeavor to
build up our own community into a microcosm of what the world itself
could be like if humanity as a whole determined once for all to devote
itself to the moral values of our own philosophy of freedom under the
law."
The Rt. Hon. the Viscount Hailsham, Q.C., Lord Privy Seal, London, England
1962
"On that same day on which I set to work on this lecture, Colonel John
Glenn circled our planet three times in five hours. Is there any
connection between the astronaut and the Africans [their recent
political upheaval]? The obvious connection is, of course, that now the
planet earth, the habitation of man, must be seen and treated as a
whole, and Political Freedom, no longer the exclusive possession of a
peculiar people, is a global proposition. And the thesis that I shall
advance tonight is that your business and my business and the principal
business of the United States is the promotion of constitutional
governments throughout the world, thereby establishing Political
Freedom as the way of life for the human race."
Henry R. Luce, editor in chief of Time, Life magazines
1962
"It hardly needs saying that the attitude of diplomaship, as I have
called it, is altogether different from the attitude of the men I was
talking about a few minutes ago, the ones who are doing the A-one jobs,
the ones who will build vital, progressive industry and a greater
nation...The figures show that the single most reliable predictive
indicator of a college graduate's success in the Bell System is his
rank in his graduating class."
Frederick R. Kappel, chairman of the board of American Telephone and Telegraph
1963
"Today we face a clear choice. Do we believe, as
President de Gaulle seems to believe, that states are forever condemned
to remain in the jungle, to remain, in the words of Raymond Aron, 'a
cold beast, never to trust another state'...Or do we believe in the
possibility of change, of gradually changing men's minds and their
behavior?...Whatever the present difficulties, we must continue to
build up a European Community and an equal partnership between that
Community and the United States of America."
M. Max Kohnstamm, vice-president of Action Committee for the United States of Europe, Brussels, Belgium
1964
"We are in the middle of a cultural revolution due to the discovery
that technology can improve rapidly by the intelligent use of research
in pure science...We are in the midst of an explosion, which, from the
nature of things, cannot last indefinitely, but which is increasing
man's knowledge of nature and his power over it, at a frightening and
increasing rate, since it still is following a compound interest
law...There will soon be a flattening out of the curve of expansion,
unless, indeed, there is a catastrophic fall."
Sir George Paget Thomson, Nobel Prize-winning physicist for work in electrons and past president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Cambridge, England
1965
"I believe it is absolutely necessary to create a
European political authority, along the same lines as the Economic
Commission of Brussels, to consider questions of foreign policy...If we
create the European political authority, then we will have the
machinery to discuss and to elaborate a common European defense and
foreign policy...I believe this step is absolutely necessary because
Europe cannot discuss with you as long as it has no unity."
Andre Philip, former minister of finance in France and lnternational trade expert
1965
"The interests of business and the interests of society
have never been more closely joined. The hot and dangerous core of the
challenge to the free world lies in the disparity between the material
well-being of most Americans and the lacks of almost two-thirds of the
rest of the human race. It falls largely to business as the fundamental
American institution of the Twentieth Century to sustain a rate of
economic growth sufficient to take care of the wants or our own
population and, while doing so, to innovate rapidly enough to support
government programs for defense, for essential foreign aid and
development. We must invest heavily overseas to contribute to their
necessary agricultural and industrial development."
Joseph C. Wilson, president of Xerox Corporation
1966
"The Iron Curtain traversing Europe from the Baltic to
the Adriatic Sea is rusting and the bamboo curtain stretching from the
Himalayas to Mt. Diamond on the east coast of Korea has the appearance
of decay after 20 years of wind and rain. The eyes and ears of the
world are turning from the Iron Curtain toward the bamboo curtain
because peace has suffered a critical wound in Asia; and because a
great surgical operation has been started on this wound."
Kim Jong Pil, chairman, Democratic Republican Party of Korea
1967
"It is my belief that we stand today upon the threshold
of a new era in our relations with the peoples of Europe -- A period of
new engagement. And I believe that this new period, if we do not lose
our wits or our nerve or our patience, can see the replacement of the
Iron Curtain with the Open Door."
Hubert Humphrey, U.S. vice president
1968
"One might look at the United States today and say that from New York
on the Atlantic to San Francisco on the Pacific, little iron curtains
have fallen between parent and child, between black men and white men,
between students and university officials, between partisans whose
chief argument against contrary opinion is to question the motives of
those who hold it."
Dr. Franc L. McCluer, former president of Westminster College, president emeritus of Lindenwood College
1968
[After traveling to several countries] I was left with
one overmastering impression. Nearly everyone was worried about our
world and what was happening to it. Nearly everyone was uncertain about
the future. There was more...uneasiness in the air than I could
remember. And it was an uneasiness that I understood, that I couldn't
precisely define but without question shared...We are behaving as
though we were in a state of siege."
The Rt. Hon. the Lord (C.P.) Snow, author, scientist, teacher
1971
"We are coming to realize that in fact the human race is
coming face to face with problems concerning its environment which can
no longer be ignored. For centuries there has been a small dark cloud
on the distant horizon giving warning that a time might come when an
expanding population consuming ever greater resources could turn this
planet into a wilderness. In our generation that cloud has grown very
much larger and darker and is moving towards us at a rapidly
accelerating pace."
The Rt. Hon. the Lord Harlech, former British ambassador to the United States and television executive in Britain
1972
"We should make our leaders...and our candidates...and
our friends talk and think about making the necessary reforms in our
electoral system and mechanism. No issue is more timely and important;
indeed, no issue is more urgent."
The Hon. Robert H. Finch, counselor to the president, former lieutenant governor of California and Health, Education and Welfare secretary
1972
"I suggest...that the United States take this great opportunity to
lead, to lead the environmental restoration of our planet, to preserve
what is green and wild and free."
General Avraham Yoffe, Nature Reserves Authority director and Israeli Army general
1974
"Today we face a different kind of adversary, not a tyrant but a
condition and the ominous prospects to which it gives rise. The
condition is economic crisis, and the prospects -- unless immediate and
drastic corrective measures are taken -- are for economic depression,
political breakdown, and perhaps war."
J. William Fulbright, U.S. senator and foreign relations committee chairman
1976
"We are truly sorry we were responsible for instances which are now
subject to...criticism...In mitigation, I truly believe the mistakes to
have been errors of mind and not of the heart. But I think it is time
to permit the FBI to get on with its vital work, lest its credibility
and effectiveness as an essential peace-keeper and guardian of
liberties be permanently damaged."
Clarence M. Kelley, F.B.I. director
1977
"This is not a time for cold wars, iron curtains or
gun-boat diplomacy. This is a time for cooperation. Our world today is
a family of nations. If one fails, the others will suffer."
Ardeshir Zahedi, Iranian ambassador to the United States
1977
"Today, a shadow hangs heavy over the future of Europe. This time it is
the threat of Communist parliamentary takeover in some Western European
nations that shrouds the fate of democracy."
Gerald R. Ford, former U.S. president
1980
"We have not yet fashioned a defensive mechanism to the cartel approach
of the OPEC nations. It is time to assess the validity of a
government-approved purchasing cartel, to be operated by the oil
companies with an assured fair allocation basis. This will enable us to
fight fire with fire, and should lead to a stabilization of supplies at
predictable prices."
Griffin B. Bell, former U.S. attorney general
1980
"Even President Carter now seems to know that his own three years of
appeasement has left us militarily and diplomatically impotent. You are
all aware of the increasing relative inferiority of the United
States...And if we didn't know it a year ago, we know it now, because
no one can deny the attack on our embassy was an attack on our
sovereignty and an act of war to which we were not able to respond with
sufficient strength to even have our captives released without paying
blackmail. And it will probably turn out with the United States
apologizing to Iran for having declared war on us."
Clare Boothe Luce, former member of Congress and ambassador to Italy
1982
"If the west is successfully to resist Soviet expansion
it must surmount a further challenge to its wisdom. This is to
understand better the changing basis of power in international affairs
and the new conditions which govern its effectiveness. Today, power
usually derives as much from the quality of our relationship with
others, that is to say, the depth of our co-operation with them and the
warmth of understanding between leaders, as from the possession of
economic or military strength."
The Rt. Hon. Edward Heath, former prime minister of Great Britain
1983
"I have great respect for many in the nuclear freeze
movement. I know they are sincerely motivated, and they too want peace,
but I greatly differ with their belief that by freezing ourselves into
a position of nuclear inferiority we would preserve peace. But I hear
one argument that frightens me, because this argument would destroy our
ability to deter war as surely as any unilateral disarmament. And that
is the argument that in the end the United States and the Soviet Union
both pose a threat, and the same kind of threat to the peace and
freedom of our world."
Caspar W. Weinberger, secretary of defense
1983
"The struggle with what the Soviet Union represents is...a conflict
deeply rooted in ideas. This conflict is as old as recorded history.
The threat posed by the Soviet Union is the lineal descendant of the
same threat Western civilizations have faced for better than 2000
years; it is the threat posed by despotism against the more or less
steadily developing concept that the highest good of the State is to
protect and to foster the creative capabilities and the liberties of
the individual."
William J. Casey, C.I.A. director
1986
"If we do not turn our back on the world, but remain engaged; if we
resist the insular temptations of isolationism and protectionism; if we
remain confident of our values, true to our ideals and resist
paralyzing self-doubt...we can begin to build that world of harmony
and, let me add, prosperity that we dreamed of when we fought the
Second World War so many years ago."
George Bush, U.S. vice president
1987
"Political language is a rhetorical language, not as a result of some
accidental flaw but in essence. What gives it its weakness is also what
makes possible its greatness, for in the last analysis we have no
better instrument for interpreting ourselves as political animals.
Therefore only a deontology of a just regard and respect, accepted by
all the parties in the political game, can keep this language from the
perversion made possible by its very functioning...I myself believe
first that such a good rhetoric is possible; second, that a good
rhetoric is what makes greatness prevail over fragility in political
discourse. This is exactly what Sir Winston forcefully demonstrated in
action in a time of suffering and glory."
Paul Ricoeur, professor emeritus, University of Chicago
1987
"There is a widespread disquiet about the effect of
Western civilization...First, I believe that many of these problems
have arisen because the West has lost its soul...Secondly, I believe
that this has happened because it has rejected the one essential belief
which marked it for centuries, namely that man, by his very nature, has
to be obedient to an authority over and above himself. Thirdly, that
the rejection of such authority leads not to freedom but to tyranny --
a tyranny which springs not, as in past centuries, from a
fundamentalist approach to truth, but from the bestowal of absolute
authority on the expression of what individuals or a group believe to
be self-evident truths but which, in fact, only reflect contemporary
fashions.
The Rt. Rev. and Rt. Hon. Graham Leonard, Bishop of London
1990
"What neither liberals nor conservatives could have predicted, even six
months ago, was how quickly change, once begun, would sweep the Soviet
Empire...Whatever its size and achievement in technical science and
military production, the Soviet Union is a nation in relative and
perhaps absolute decline...At this watershed moment, the United States
faces a new role. No longer the unchallenged leader of an alliance
confronting the "iron curtain," we are called upon to become an active
and exemplary partner in a "common house" joining the Old World and the
New."
Claiborne Pell, U.S. senator and foreign relations committee chairman
1992
"In the final analysis, it depends on you. Just like
Noah, how many animals and plants we have left when we finally do have
world stability will depend on individuals."
Peter H. Raven, Missouri Botanical Garden director
1992
"If the United States and the Soviet Union had been
capable of understanding their responsibility and sensibly correlating
their national interests and strivings with the rights and interests of
other states and peoples, the planet today would be a much more
suitable and favorable place for human life. In the major centers of
world politics the choice, it would seem, has today been made in favor
of peace, cooperation, interaction, and overall security...this is a
turning point on a historic and worldwide scale and signifies the
incipient substitution of one paradigm of civilization by another."
Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union
1993
"So as we in this nation struggle with the challenges
brought on by our prosperity and rapid advancement, our new friends on
the other side of the former iron curtain struggle with a different set
of challenges. It is not only material deprivation and economic
backwardness...It is also a struggle of the soul, a struggle of a
people...trying to express themselves democratically when they do not
have the experience to do so and do not have the history to understand
what democracy really means...Bridging the great divide will not be
easy; it will not be quick. But, it will be the primary challenge of
the future."
Robert Strauss, former U.S. ambassador to Russia
1996
"When Soviet power broke down, so did the control it
exercised, however fitfully and irresponsibly, over rogue states like
Syria, Iraq and Gadaffi's Libya. They have in effect been released to
commit whatever mischief they wish without bothering to check with
their arms supplier and bank manager... The Soviet collapse has also
aggravated the single most awesome threat of modern times: the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These weapons - and the
ability to develop and deliver them - are today acquired by
middle-income countries with modest populations such as Iraq, Iran,
Libya and Syria - acquired sometimes from other powers like China and
North Korea, but most ominously from former Soviet arsenals, or
unemployed scientists, or from organized criminal rings, all via a
growing international black market."
The Rt.Hon. the Baroness Thatcher
2002
“We are a land and a people acclimated to difficulty and attuned to grand purpose … If we summon the will to stand firmly for freedom and strive boldly to spread our democratic principles, we can, once again, liberate millions of men and women from the grip of tyranny.”
Congressman Tom DeLay, House Majority Whip, U.S. Representative, Texas
2003
"Self-reliance, community, democracy – the sequence that allows you to engage in the pursuit of justice. Which is truly the pursuit of happiness."
Ralph Nader, Consumer advocate and former Presidential candidate