Jeane Kirkpatrick Quotes

44 quotes in 569 categories

• We have war when at least one of the parties to a conflict wants something more than it wants peace.
• Vietnam presumably taught us that the United States could not serve as the world's policeman; it should also have taught us the dangers of trying…
• A government is not legitimate merely because it exists.
• History is a better guide than good intentions.
• Straying off course is not recognized as a capital crime by civilized nations.
• Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal. Cross cultural experience teaches us…
• I conclude that it is a fundamental mistake to think that salvation, justice, or virtue come through merely human institutions.
• Americans need to face the truth about themselves, no matter how pleasant it is.
• What takes place in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving.
• I think that it's always appropriate for Americans and for American foreign policy to make clear why we feel that self-government is most compatible with…
• I believe that detente was having almost the opposite effect of what was intended. What was intended was to sort of end the contest for…
• I always assume that democracy is the only good form of government, quite frankly, and democracy is always to be preferred
• Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal
• And I have no doubt that the American people generally believe the world is safer, and that we are safer, when we are stronger
• A doctrine of class war seemed to provide a solution to the problem of poverty to people who know nothing about how wealth is created
• I don't think the government (of El Salvador) was responsible. The nuns were not just nuns; the nuns were political activists. We ought to be…
• Truth, which is important to a scholar, has to be concrete. And there is nothing more concrete than dealing with babies, burps and bottles, frogs…
• Words can destroy. What we call each other ultimately becomes what we think of each other, and it matters.
• Solidarity was the movement that turned the direction of history, I think.
• Democrats can't get elected unless things get worse-and things won't get worse unless they get elected.

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