Statesman Quotes

I am become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, and under the shadow of my own Vine and my own Fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp and the busy scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with those tranquil enjoyments, of which the Soldier who is ever in pursuit of fame, the Statesman whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the ruin of other countries, as if this globe was insufficient for us all, and the Courtier who is always watching the countenance of his Prince, in hopes of catching a gracious smile, can have very little conception.

The heart of a statesman must be in his head.

A statesman deals with concrete difficulties - with things which must be done from day to day. Not often can he frame conscious patterns for the far off future.

It seldom helps to wonder how a statesman of one generation would surmount the crisis of another.

For I must not measure the speech of a statesman to his people... but by the effect it exerts on the people.