151 Quotes by Robert Dallek

The art of diplomacy is finding a reasonable route among imperfect alternatives.

JFK to RFK: To survive in politics, you sometimes have to be willing to make fun of yourself.

Warum ist eigentlich das demokratische System besser?... Es ist besser, weil es die volle Entwicklung des Menschen als Individuum möglich macht. Aber... das zeigt nur, daß die Demokratie eine >angenehmere< Form der Regierung ist [...].

They are pretty good at improvising, but God help us if they are given time to think. Dean Atchison

He was able to put them on the trail of the truth to find out just exactly what was going on in this scandal.

Kennedy was very sensitive to this question of ever using nuclear weapons,

I think he's really undermined his credibility at this point, and it really saddles him with the kind of problems that Johnson and Nixon faced. These crises are such a heavy burden, and they are so self-inflicted, except for the court vacancies, that if he is not very careful and tries to put across someone who is seen as an ultraconservative, he is going to touch off a conflagration in the Senate.

It didn't work for Johnson, and it's not working for Bush.

What they are coming up against now is the limits of partisanship, the limits of dividing the country so decisively.