"Anyone who has ever studied the history of……" — George F. Kennan
"Anyone who has ever studied the history of American diplomacy, especially military diplomacy, knows that you might start in a war with certain things on your mind as a purpose of what you are doing, but in the end, you found yourself fighting for entirely different things that you had never thought of before ... In other words, war has a momentum of its own and it carries you away from all thoughtful intentions when you get into it. Today, if we went into Iraq, like the president would like us to do, you know where you begin. You never know where you are going to end."
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George F. Kennan
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33 Quotes by George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan has 33 quotes on this site.
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...there is an optimal balance, depending on the manner of man's life, between the density of human population and the…
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This is a big world. Billions - rapidly increasing billions - of people live outside our borders. Obviously, a great…
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It is obviously easier, for the short run, to draw cheap labor from adjacent pools of poverty...than to find it…
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Actually, the inability of any society to resist immigration, the inability to find other solutions to the problem of employment…
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Popular revolt against a ruthless, experienced modern dictatorship, which enjoys a monopoly over weapons and communications, ... is simply not…
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It is an undeniable privilege of every man to prove himself right in the thesis that the world is his…
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The jealous and intolerant eye of the Kremlin can distinguish, in the end, only vassals and enemies, and the neighbors…
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It is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of…
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There is more respect to be won in the opinion of this world by a resolute and courageous liquidation of…
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War is a highly overrated tool of foreign policy.
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A foreign policy aimed at the achievement of total security is the one thing I can think of that is…
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We should not lose ourselves in vainglorious sohemes for changing human nature all over the planet. Rather, we should learn…
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More All Quotes
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Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally…
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No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our…
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The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire; all…
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The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes…
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Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of…
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We have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and…
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I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is…
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We must all make peace so that we can all live in peace.
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The spirit of Ubuntu, that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent black nation in 1804, helped Venezuela,…
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As we all know, many people remain buried under tons of rubble and debris, waiting to be rescued. When we…
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Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.
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A friend to all is a friend to none.
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