Man generally is entangled in insoluble problems; history is consequently a tragedy in which we are all involved, whose keynote is anxiety and frustration, not progress and fulfilment. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. More Quotes by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. More Quotes From Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. For most Americans the Constitution had become a hazy document, cited like the Bible on ceremonial occasions but forgotten in the daily transactions of life. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. empathy apathy america History is full of surprises. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. surprise life history In Defense of the World Order . . . U.S. soldiers would have to kill and die. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. defense soldier order For history is to the nation as memory is to the individual. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. individual memories history Economists are about as useful as astrologers in predicting the future (and, like astrologers, they never let failure on one occasion diminish certitude on the next). Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. economist economics next What higher obligation does a President have than to explain his intentions to the people and persuade them that the direction he wishes to go is right? Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. president wish people There is no more dangerous thing for a democracy than a foreign policy based on presidential preventive war. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. presidential democracy war The use of history as therapy means the corruption of history as history. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. use mean history Righteousness is easy in retrospect. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. retrospect ethics integrity To say that there is a case for heroes is not to say that there is a case for hero worship. The surrender of decision, the unquestioning submission to leadership, the prostration of the average man before the Great Man -- these are the diseases of heroism, and they are fatal to human dignity. History amply shows that it is possible to have heroes without turning them into gods. And history shows, too, that when a society, in flight from hero worship, decides to do without great men at all, it gets into troubles of its own. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. hero average men Liberalism regards all absolutes with profound skepticism, including both moral imperatives and final solutions... Insistence upon any particular solution is the mark of an ideologue. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. freedom faith knowledge Television has spread the habit of instant reaction and stimulated the hope of instant results. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. reactions habit television Almost all important questions are important precisely because they are not susceptible to quantitative answer. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. important-questions important answers The military struggle may frankly be regarded for what it actually was, namely a war for independence, an armed attempt to imposethe views of the revolutionists upon the British government and large sections of the colonial population at whatever cost to freedom of opinion or the sanctity of life and property. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. military struggle war Anti-intellectualism has long been the anti-Semitism of the businessman. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. retrospect businessman long Every President reconstructs the Presidency to meet his own psychological needs. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. psychological-needs presidency president I don't think I have made as much of my life as I should have. I should have written more books. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. should-have book thinking Excellence is the eternal quest. We achieve it by living up to our highest intellectual standards and our finest moral intuitions. In seeking excellence, take life seriously-but never yourself! Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. intuition excellence intellectual History, in the end, becomes a form of irony. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. irony form ends Santayana's aphorism must be reversed: too often it is those who can remember the past who are condemned to repeat it. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. aphorism remember past
