Dwight D. Eisenhower

I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.

I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new-one which I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use. That new language is the language of atomic warfare.

Few women, I fear, have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.

It is only common sense to recognize that the great bulk of Americans, whether Republican or Democrat, face many common problems and agree on a number of basic objectives.

But we know that freedom cannot be served by the devices of the tyrant. As it is an ancient truth that freedom cannot be legislated into existence, so it is no less obvious that freedom cannot be censored into existence. And any who act as if freedoms defenses are to be found in suppression and suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien to America.

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

The proper role of government, however, is that of partner with the farmer -- never his master. By every possible means we must develop and promote that partnership -- to the end that agriculture may continue to be a sound, enduring foundation for our economy and that farm living may be a profitable and satisfying experience.

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.

And they can appreciate, through personal experience, that the really decisive battleground of American freedom is in the hearts and minds of our own people... Each day we must ask that Almighty God will set and keep His protecting hand over us so that we may pass on to those who come after us the heritage of a free people, secure in their God-given rights and in full control of a Government dedicated to the preservation of those rights.

We are not saints. We know we make mistakes, but at least our heart is with the right cause.

There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.

Never let yourself be persuaded that any one Great Man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader and 158 million followers, it will no longer be America.

A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.

Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.

I believe that without free enterprise there can be no democracy.

It is far more important to be able to hit the target than it is to haggle over who makes a weapon or who pulls a trigger.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative.

You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly.

I have found out in later years that we were very poor, but the glory of America is that we didn't know it then.