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.

I have just realized that it is due to you, and to Mr. James Thomas and his staff of the Army Navy Country Club that the putting green here on the White House lawn is already in such excellent condition. I assure you that I get a great deal of pleasure and relaxation out of using the green in an occasional late afternoon hour . . .

Don't join the book burners!

I will not get into a pissing contest with that skunk [Joseph McCarthy].

Always try to associate yourself with and learn as much as you can from those who know more than you do, who do better than you, who see more clearly than you.

Help the Cubans to the utmost counseling his successor while handing over the reins. We cannot let Castro's government go on.

Controlled, universal disarmament is the imperative of our time. The demand for it by the hundreds of millions whose chief concern is the long future of themselves and their children will, I hope, become so universal and so insistent that no man, no government anywhere, can withstand it.