Statecraft Quotes

Pointing out the possible, and expensive, entanglements that could come with widespread commercial enterprise, the author calculates the Great Britain was at war half the time between 1689 and 1783.

Intelligence analysts should be self-conscious about their reasoning processes. They should think about how they make judgments and reach conclusions, not just about the judgments and conclusions themselves.

As the pace of the campaign quickened, politics began to clash with Kennedy's innate sense of responsibility. – Arthur Schlesinger

David Pietrusza

One must always keep the tools of statecraft sharp and ready. Power and fear – sharp and ready.

Deceit is a tool of statecraft," Irulan agreed."There are limits to power, as those who put their hopes in a constitution always discover," Paul said.

A sense of messianic purpose makes the national interest almost indistinguishable from the political interests of the president.

Moral action – humble and honest – is the tribute that power must at some point pay to reason.

He was always acting, always enveloping himself in artificiality, perhaps to conceal the volcano within.

Barbara W. Tuchman

Confronted by menace or what is perceived as menace, governments will usually attempt to smash it, rarely to examine it, understand it, and drefine it.

Barbara W. Tuchman

No one sits, as you do, so close to a king, who does not begin to grasp how the levers of power work, and the cost of the oil that must grease them.

Geraldine Brooks

He is able to put aside personal feelings and see the broad strokes. Experience counts in these things.

Geraldine Brooks

If soldiering did not interest him, the soldiers themselves were another matter. He loved to sit with the men and draw out their first-hand stories of past campaigns.

Geraldine Brooks

For leaders, wars are filled with guesses.

The feelings of politicians are rarely transparent.

Initial uniformity can be deceiving, warns the author, because parties arrive at that state from so many different motives which will be exposed over time.

Donald R. Hickey

Princes give rewards with their own hands,But death or punishment by the hands of other.

We had deluded ourselves that perhaps peace might find the Arabs able, unhelped and untaught, to defend themselves with paper tools. Meanwhile we glozed our fraud by conducting their necessary war purely and cheaply. But now this gloss had gone from me. Chargeable against my conceit were the causeless, ineffectual deaths of Hesa. My will had gone and I feared to be alone, lest the winds of circumstance, or power, or lust, blow my empty soul away.

State first, subject second, statesman last.