John Foster Dulles

John Foster Dulles

6 quotes

The American politician and diplomat John Foster Dulles is someone whose pithy observations have become part of everyday conversation. The range of their thinking — from War to Peace — speaks to an intellectual restlessness that shows in every quote. 10 of John Foster Dulles's sharpest quotes live here, spanning themes of War, Peace, Success, Politics, and History. Among their most shared lines: "Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence."

“Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence.”

— John Foster Dulles

Government

All Quotes by John Foster Dulles

“Mankind 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 Dulles

Peace

“The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art. If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost.”

— John Foster Dulles

War

“I wouldn't attach too much importance to these student riots. I remember when I was a student at the Sorbonne in Paris, I used to go out and riot occasionally.”

— John Foster Dulles

History

“Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence.”

— John Foster Dulles

Government

“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 Dulles

Success

“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 Dulles

Faith