Whenever a new president comes in, people that are used to the previous president wonder if he has the same capacity.

The statesman's duty is to bridge the gap between his nation's experience and his vision.

I don't know what happens in the next years. But I cannot now design a policy in which we try to keep China from developing, because in some years, if they develop, they might be rich enough to challenge us, and adopt the principle that we will hold down any state that might in the future become strong. That would make us a world empire for which we wouldn't have the talents or the convictions.

Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed.

The Russian empire under czars and commissars has been hard to deal with for other countries.

One has to remember that every progress that has been made towards peace in the Middle East has come under American leadership.

Our problem was that in the American approach to Soviet affairs policy has oscillated between people who take an essentially psychological approach and people who take an essentially theological approach, and the two really meet. The psychologists try to "understand" the Soviet Union. And try to ease its alleged fears. The theologians say the Soviets are evil.