Statesman Quotes

What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.
Aristotle

Character, Moral, Actions

If there is not the war, you don't get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don't get a great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name.
Theodore Roosevelt

Peace, Time, Great

Conservative, n: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others.
Ambrose Bierce

Others, Liberal, Wishes

The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.
Erich Fromm

Successful, Criminal

A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.
James Freeman Clarke

Election, Next, Generation

A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.
Edmund Burke

Together, Ability, Taken

I think it better that in times like these a poet's mouth be silent, for in truth we have no gift to set a statesman right.
William Butler Yeats

Truth, Times, Silent

The statesman's duty is to bridge the gap between his nation's experience and his vision.
Henry A. Kissinger

Experience, Between, Nation

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years.
Harry S. Truman

Government, Dead, Politician

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.
George Santayana

Positive, War, Soldier

A statesman, we are told, should follow public opinion. Doubtless, as a coachman follows his horses; having firm hold on the reins and guiding them.
Augustus Hare

Opinion, Public, Hold

War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade.
Percy Bysshe Shelley

War, Game, Lawyer

My father was a statesman, I am a political woman. My father was a saint. I am not.
Indira Gandhi

Father, Woman, Political

A statesman cannot afford to be a moralist.
Will Durant

Cannot, Afford, Moralist

The statesman shears the sheep; the politician skins them.
Austin O'Malley

Sheep, Politician, Skins

A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth.
Adlai E. Stevenson

Question, Open, Mouth

The three great ends which a statesman ought to propose to himself in the government of a nation, are one, Security to possessors; two, facility to acquirers; and three, hope to all.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Great, Hope, Government

Nelson Mandela is, for me, the single statesman in the world. The single statesman, in that literal sense, who is not solving all his problems with guns. It's truly unbelievable.
Toni Morrison

Single, Problems, Sense

The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opposition than from his fervent supporters.
Walter Lippmann

Good, Human, Sensible

The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks.
Charles de Gaulle

True, Willing, Risks

A statesman... must wait until he hears the steps of God sounding through events, then leap up and grasp the hem of His garment.
Otto von Bismarck

God, Through, Wait

You know, a statesman is a dead politician.
Arlen Specter

Dead, Politician

At home, you always have to be a politician; when you're abroad, you almost feel yourself a statesman.
Harold MacMillan

Home, Yourself, Almost

He was what I often think is a dangerous thing for a statesman to be - a student of history; and like most of those who study history, he learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.
A. J. P. Taylor

History, Mistakes, Past

A statesman wants courage and a statesman wants vision; but believe me, after six months' experience, he wants first, second, third and all the time - patience.
Stanley Baldwin

Time, Courage, Patience

A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
Walter Bagehot

Opinions, Common, General

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
Dean Acheson

You can always get the truth from an American statesman after he has turned seventy, or given up all hope of the Presidency.
Wendell Phillips

Hope, Truth, After

The fastest way for a politician to become an elder statesman is to lose an election.
Earl Wilson

Become, Lose, Election

Now I know what a statesman is; he's a dead politician. We need more statesmen.
Bob Edwards

Dead, Politician, Statesmen

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Marcus Aurelius

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