James Truslow Adams Quotes

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

True statesmanship is the art of changing a nation from what it is into what it ought to be.

Great statesmen seem to direct and rule by a sort of power to put themselves in the place of the nation over which they are set, and may thus be said to possess the souls of poets at the same time they display the coarser sense and the more vulgar sagacity of practical men of business.

Politicians all too often think about the next election. Statesmen think about the next generation.

In my view, a political vision is not a grab-bag of discrete problems and solutions. It is the visionary anticipation of a direction.

The statesman wishes to steer, while the politician is satisfied to drift.

You make a good politician, but you've got to develop a philosophy.

Building a state and fostering a national identity take time and good leadership—bold ideas, initiative, and the willingness to compromise.

President [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt always had a wider point of view, of necessity, than I did.

Cynics who say power is all that counts in politics forget that power without ideas is just improvisation.

Men who think in lifetimes are of little use to statesmanship.

Were there no men of vision, all who are blind would be dead.

Practical efficiency is common, and lofty idealism not uncommon; it is the combination which is necessary, and the combination is rare

The opportunist thinks of me and today. The statesman thinks of us and tomorrow.

With vision only, you get no follow-through. With enforcers only, the vision is realized but leaves a lot of wreckage.

The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence, and patience to turn that dream into reality.

Olympism is a doctrine of the fraternity between the body and the soul.

Mere human beings cant afford to be fanatical about anything. Not even about justice or loyalty. The fanatic for justice ends by murdering a million helpless people to clear a space for his law-courts. If we are to survive on this planet, there must be compromises.

In the weeks and months ahead, my task is to show I have the new ideas, the vision and the experience to earn the trust of the British people.

In the construction of a country, it is not the practical workers but the idealists and planners that are difficult to find.

On the foreign policy side, there's the risk of being too spontaneous and too disruptive where you end up doing more harm than damage. And figuring out that balance is where having strong people around you matters.

What people most need now is to apply their conversion skills to those things that are essential for their survival. They need to convert facts into logic, free will into purpose, conscience into decision. They need to convert historical experience into a design for a sane world.

No man has come so near our definition of a constitutional statesman - the powers of a first-rate man and the creed of a second-rate man.

Greatness starts with a clear vision of the future.

We want men who will fix their eyes on the stars, but who will not forget that their feet must walk on the ground.