DEAN ACHESON

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

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

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

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

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

The greatest mistake I made was not to die in office.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Controversial proposals, once accepted, soon become hallowed.

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

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

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

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

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

Bipartisanship is “the oil of national government.”

I wouldn’t be too serious about bipartisanship. It’s a great myth that ought to be fostered. And don’t bring too damn much scholarship to bear on it. You’ll prove it out of existence if you’re not careful.

About other Democratic candidates: Never say that any of them is not qualified to be President. Never say any of them can't win. Never suggest that any of them is the tool of an group or interest ...

Sometimes it is necessary to make things clearer than the truth.

That is what all of us must learn to do in the United States; to limit objectives, to get ourselves away from the absolute, to find out what is within our powers.

The future comes one day at a time.

The great corrupter of public man is the ego.

While General MacArthur had many of the attributes of a foreign sovereign ... and was quite as difficult as any, it did not seem wise to recognize him as one.