Top 10 George Frost Kennan Quotes at QuotationFun

Displaying Top 10 George Frost Kennan quotes

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If humiliation and rejection are to be the rewards of faithful and effective service in this field, what are those of us to conclude who have also served prominently in this line of work but upon whom this badge has not yet been conferred? We cannot deceive ourselves into believing that it was merit, rather than chance, that spared some of us the necessity of working in areas of activity that have now become controversial, of recording opinions people now find disagreeable, of aiding in the implementation of policies now under question. ... In no field of endeavor is it easier than in the field of foreign affairs to be honestly wrong; in no field is it harder for contemporaries to be certain they can distinguish between wisdom and folly; in no field would it be less practicable to try to insist on infallibility as a mark of fitness for office.

In defense of a colleague undergoing investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951; published in Memoirs : 1950-1963.

Heroic, Politics, Truth, Patriotism

Now this problem of the adjustment of man to his natural resources, and the problem of how such things as industrialization and urbanization can be accepted without destroying the traditional values of a civilization and corrupting the inner vitality of its life — these things are not only the problems of America; they are the problems of men everywhere. To the extent that we Americans become able to show that we are aware of these problems, and that we are approaching them with coherent and effective ideas of our own which we have the courage to put into effect in our own lives, to that extent a new dimension will come into our relations with the peoples beyond our borders, to that extent, in fact, the dreams of these earlier generations of Americans who saw us as leaders and helpers to the peoples of the world at large will begin to take on flesh and reality.

- Lecture at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey (March 1954; published in “The Unifying Factor” in Realities of American Foreign Policy - 1954.

Politics, Patriotism

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.

Lecture at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey - March 1954; published in “The Two Planes of International Reality” in Realities of American Foreign Policy - 1954.

Politics, Patriotism