The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.
John Foster DullesRead
The United Nations was not set up to be a reformatory. It was assumed that you would be good before you got in and not that being in would make you good
Interpretation
What this quote means
The United Nations expects member nations to already adhere to certain moral standards rather than improving them through membership.
This quote by John Foster Dulles reflects the idea that the United Nations was founded on the assumption that its member states are already committed to good governance and ethical behavior. It suggests that the organization is not intended to reform nations but rather to provide a platform for those that are already good to collaborate and uphold international standards of peace and morality.
Themes
United NationsMoralityGovernanceInternational RelationsEthics
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about international cooperation and ethics, one might reference this quote to highlight the expectations placed on nations.
More from John Foster Dulles
All quotes βMankind will never win lasting peace so long as men use their full resources only in tasks of war. While we are yet at peace, let us mobilize the potentialities, particularly the moral and spiritual potentialities, which we usually reserve for war.
John Foster DullesRead
The mark of a successful organization isn't whether or not it has problems, its whether it has the same problems it had last year.
John Foster DullesRead
Economic and military power can be developed under the spur of laws and appropriations. But moral power does not derive from any act of Congress. It depends on the relations of a people to their God. It is the churches to which we must look to develop the resources for the great moral offensive that is required to make human rights secure, and to win a just and lasting peace.
John Foster DullesRead
The U.S. has no friends, only interests.
John Foster DullesRead
The world will never have lasting peace so long as men reserve for war the finest human qualities. Peace, no less than war, requires idealism and self-sacrifice and a righteous and dynamic faith.
John Foster DullesRead
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