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George F. Kennan quotes

American Historian February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005

George F. Kennan quotes in german
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Quotes

The best an American can look forward to is the lonely pleasure of one who stands at long last on a chilly and inhospitable mountaintop where few have been before, where few can follow and where few will consent to believe he has been. George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan quote: "The best thing we can do if we want the Russians to let us be..."
The best thing we can do if we want the Russians to let us be Americans is to let the Russians be Russian. George F. Kennan
Anyone who has ever studied the history of American diplomacy, especially military diplomacy, knows that you might start in a war with certain things on your mind as a purpose of what you are doing, but in the end, you found yourself fighting for entirely different things that you had never thought of before ... In other words, war has a momentum of its own and it carries you away from all thoughtful intentions when you get into it. Today, if we went into Iraq, like the president would like... George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan quote: "Instruments of coercion, once created, have a tendency to find..."
Instruments of coercion, once created, have a tendency to find their own natural master. George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan quote: "One sometimes feels a guest of one's time and not a member of..."
One sometimes feels a guest of one's time and not a member of its household. George F. Kennan
The very concept of history implies the scholar and the reader. Without a generation of civilized people to study history, to preserve its records, to absorb its lessons and relate them to its own problems, history, too, would lose its meaning. George F. Kennan
We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better. George F. Kennan
Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy. George F. Kennan
A political society does not live to conduct foreign policy; it would be more correct to say that it conducts foreign policy in order to live. George F. Kennan
It is an undeniable privilege of every man to prove himself right in the thesis that the world is his enemy; for if he reiterates it frequently enough and makes it the background of his conduct he is bound eventually to be right. George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan quote: "The accords were fig leaves of democratic procedure to hide..."
The accords were fig leaves of democratic procedure to hide the nakedness of Stalinist dictatorship. George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan quote: "Heroism is endurance for one moment more."
Heroism is endurance for one moment more. George F. Kennan
The truth is sometimes a poor competitor in the market place of ideas? complicated, unsatisfying, full of dilemmas, always vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse. George F. Kennan

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