James Forrestal Quotes

Oh, sure, we have another world war coming, and another great depression, but where are the leaders this time?

In the 1930s one was aware of two great evils - mass unemployment and the threat of war.

Albania is at risk and we are living in difficult times.

There were three causes that accounted for the proclamation of martial law in Poland. First it was the progressing economic ruin of the country. Second, it was the decomposition of the functioning of the state. And third, a threat of a civil war.

There's a real question at stake now. Is President Obama creating a civil war in our own country?

Life has become terribly insecure. It's on the vortex of civil war. It's difficult to know how America will bring it back from the brink and build up good will.

No foreign enemies could threaten so much danger to this kingdom as doth now this beggarly nation. [Scotland]

Even if hostilities do not begin, the world is menaced by economic collapse. Mistrust and suspicion reign everywhere. Beneath our very eyes the camps are forming, armies are gathering and a fearful struggle is being prepared in Europe. Is our continent to commit suicide in a terrifying war at the end of which no nation could call itself victor or vanquished, but in which the spiritual and material values created by centuries of civilization would founder?

Never since Jamestown and Plymouth Rock has our American civilization been in such danger as now.

I'm not really a political animal but I am rather fascinated by the meltdown of England and America. In the end, it seems as if America might come out of it, but I'm not sure if England is ever going to recover.

The new century has brought on its own terrible dangers, which although not reaching the apocalyptic potential of the Cold War, still have the capacity to shake our world.

So a truthful assessment of how America is doing in the war on terror as a result of President Bush's war on Iraq is that we have been set back by decades.

The Great War proved how confused the world is. Depression is proving it again.

The president, clearly as a result of the war and the afterglow of the war, is in a time of great attention.

There is no more dangerous country in the world today than Pakistan.

You could say that bad typography brought us the Afghanistan war, the Iraq war, the housing crisis and a good number of other things.

But through world wars and a Great Depression, through painful social upheaval and a Cold War, and now through the attacks of September 11, 2001, our Nation has indeed survived.

I saw clearly how those who saved the state so heroically and courageously in the War of Independence would be capable of bringing a catastrophe upon it if they are given the chance in normal times.

It is not advantageous for Russia in its present state to fight against Chechnya. The army is a mess. It must be made combat ready. That will take time. Russia has a lot of economic, social and political problems much more important than Chechnya.

It's odd being an American now. Most of us are peaceful, but here we are again, in our fifth major war of this century.

Something is wanting, and something must be done, or we shall be involved in all the horror of failure, and civil war without a prospect of its termination.

We have a country that is in a very delicate situation.

The combination of hatred and technology is the greatest danger threatening mankind.

My job was to nurture the frail plants of democracy in Europe against anarchy or Communism. And Communism was the pit into which all governments were in danger of falling when frantic peoples were driven by the Horsemen of Famine and Pestilence.

To-day the Peace Treaty was ratified at Paris; the War is over. A terrible era begins for Europe, like the gathering of clouds before a storm, and it will end in an explosion probably more terrible than that of the World War. In Germany there are all the signs of a continuing growth of nationalism.