[President Truman] was free of the greatest vice in a leader, his ego never came between him and his job.

Like apples in a barrel infected by one rotten one, the corruption of Greece would infect Iran and all to the east. It would also carry infection to Africa through Asia Minor and Egypt, and to Europe through Italy and France, already threatened by the strongest domestic Communist parties in Western Europe. The Soviet Union was playing one of the greatest gambles in history at minimal cost. It did not need to will all the possibilities. Even one or two offered immense gains. We and we alone were in a position to break up the play.

I think Churchill is right, the only thing to be said for democracy is that there is nothing else that's any better, and therefore he used to say, Tyranny tempered by assassination, but lots of assassination. People say, If the Congress were more representative of the people it would be better. I say the Congress is too damn representative. It's just as stupid as the people are; just as uneducated, just as dumb, just as selfish.

To leave positions of great responsibility and authority is to die a little, but the time comes when that must be faced.

A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.

The greatest mistake I made was not to die in office.

Time spent in the advertising business seems to create a permanent deformity like the Chinese habit of foot-binding.