Madeline Albright: The debate between idealism and realism in foreign affairs moves back and forth like a pendulum because neither extreme is sustainable. A successful foreign policy must begin with the world as it is but also work for what we would like it to be. On a globe this complicated, even the purest of principles must sometimes be diluted. Still, we get up in the morning because of hope, which cold-blooded cynicism can neither inspire nor satisfy. If all America stands for is stability, no one will follow us for the simple reason that we aren't going anywhere.
Fyodor Dostoevsky:
It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them -- the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.
Realists do not fear the results of their study.
To live without Hope is to Cease to live.
Neither man or nation can exist without a sublime idea.
Love a man, even in his sin, for that love is a likeness of the divine love, and is the summit of love on earth.
There are three forces, the only three forces capable of conquering and enslaving forever the conscience of these weak rebels in the interests of their own happiness. They are: the miracle, the mystery and authority..
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, 'Make us your slaves, but feed us.
Man has such a predilection for systems and abstract deductions that he is ready to distort the truth intentionally, he is ready to deny the evidence of his senses only to justify his logic.
Without a firm idea of himself and the purpose of his life, man cannot live, and would sooner destroy himself than remain on earth, even if he was surrounded by bread.
Mark Twain:
Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.
Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
Archie B. Carroll
As religion and faith are being driven out of the public square, the Judeo-Christian ethical foundations that have sustained our country since its beginning, are being lost and are being replaced with a humanistic amorality, a self-centered, pragmatic indifference that will ensure that our moral compasses will fail to point us in the right direction in the future.
