Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Tuesday, August 28, 2012 – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Tuesday, August 28, 2012 – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”
And
“Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.”
And
“I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.”
And
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
And
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”
And
“The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.”
And
“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”
And
“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
And
“When you are in any contest, you should work as if there were – to the very last minute – a chance to lose it. This is battle, this is politics, this is anything.”
And
“You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.”
And
“An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.”
And
“Don’t join the book burners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.”
And
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
And
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.”
And
“Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.”
And
“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”
And
“How far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?”
And
“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
And
“I have one yardstick by which I test every major problem – and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?”
And
“I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”
And
“If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.”
And
“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.”
And
“May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.”
And
“Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.”
And
“Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg.”
And
“Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.”
And
“Plans are nothing; planning is everything.”
And
“The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice; their choice!”
And
“The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth.”
And
“There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.”
And
“We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.”
And
“When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war.”
And
“Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!
I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle.
We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
Order of the Day (2 June 1944) Message to troops before the Normandy landings
And
“We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose. We must be willing, individually and as a Nation, to accept whatever sacrifices may be required of us. A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. These basic precepts are not lofty abstractions, far removed from matters of daily living. They are laws of spiritual strength that generate and define our material strength. Patriotism means equipped forces and a prepared citizenry. Moral stamina means more energy and more productivity, on the farm and in the factory. Love of liberty means the guarding of every resource that makes freedom possible–from the sanctity of our families and the wealth of our soil to the genius of our scientists.”
First Inaugural address (20 January 1953)
And
“As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”
And
“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.”
And
“Character in many ways is everything in leadership. It is made up of many things, but I would say character is really integrity. When you delegate something to a subordinate, for example, it is absolutely your responsibility, and he must understand this. You as a leader must take complete responsibility for what the subordinate does. I once said, as a sort of wisecrack, that leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.”
Wikipedia: Dwight Eisenhower
