I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes extreme political views that attack moderate positions.
Eisenhower expresses contempt for individuals on the far ends of the political spectrum who refuse to engage in constructive dialogue and instead choose to attack those who represent a more balanced, centrist perspective. This reflects a belief in the importance of moderation and understanding in political discourse.
In practice
During a political debate on the importance of moderation in politics.
If a man's associates find him guilty of being phony, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose.
The libraries of America are and must ever remain the home of free and inquiring minds. To them, our citizens-of all ages and races, of all creeds and persuasions-must be able to turn with clear confidence that there they can freely seek the whole truth, unvarnished by fashion and uncompromised by expediency.
You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.
When pressure mounts and strain increases everyone begins to show the weaknesses in his makeup. It is up to the Commander to conceal his: above all to conceal doubt, fear, and distrust.
Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.
If America has a civic religion, the First Amendment is its central article of faith.
Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history.
The words of the Constitution... are so unrestricted by their intrinsic meaning or by their history or by tradition or by prior decisions that they leave the individual Justice free, if indeed they do not compel him, to gather meaning not from reading the Constitution but from reading life.
There's another disadvantage to the use of the flashlight: like many other mechanical gadgets it tends to separate a man from the world around him. If I switch it on my eyes adapt to it and I can see only the small pool of light it makes in front of me; I am isolated. Leaving the flashlight in my pocket where it belongs, I remain a part of the environment I walk through and my vision though limited has no sharp or definite boundary.
Human rights is the only ideology that deserves to survive
Are you sure/That we are awake? It seems to me/That yet we sleep, we dream
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.