That's one of the major lessons: no president should ever take this nation to war without full public debate in the Congress and/or in the public.

I think the human race needs to think about killing. How much evil must we do to do good?

Action should be founded on contemplation, and those of us who act don't put enough time, don't give enough emphasis, to contemplation.

It is true that at the time [1962] we had a strategic nuclear force of approximately five thousand warheads compared to the Soviet's three hundred.

It would be our policy to use nuclear weapons wherever we felt it necessary to protect our forces and achieve our objectives.

It was a perfectly beautiful night, as fall nights are in Washington. I walked out of the president's Oval Office, and as I walked out, I thought I might never live to see another Saturday night.

What makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?