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

Controversial proposals, once accepted, soon become hallowed.

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

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

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

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

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

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 greatest mistake I made was not to die in office.

The manner in which one endures what must be endured is more important than the thing that must be endured.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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 best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.

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

The future comes one day at a time.

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

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.

A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.