John Anderson Quotes

When you are confronted with a genuine emergency, then I think you have to look at the interest of the country first.

American government has usually been pretty good in a crisis and pretty lousy at all other times.

The best episodes of 'The West Wing' that dealt with policy and stuff, in my opinion, were the ones where they were in the middle of a crisis, and they were trying to figure out how to solve problems.

In crises the most daring course is often safest.

The most difficult issues—the toughest decisions—are the ones that invariably end up on the President’s desk.

The time when people really want government is in an emergency.

In great crises, a man who has to act or speak stands bare and stripped of choice.

911 rings at the mayor’s office, not at the Justice Department or the White House.

Let’s have a moratorium on press conferences …. Get off your asses and let’s do something and fix the biggest doggone crisis in the history of this country.

Desperate maladies require desperate remedies.

To solve a major crisis, you have to do things you would never do in normal times or even in a modest crisis…. What feels just and fair is often just the opposite of what is required for a just and fair outcome. It is why policy makers generally tend to make crises worse, and why the politics of crises management is always untenable.

The Nation trembled on the brink. Events moved with such speed that it was necessary to decide to act on the instant, as each successive crisis arose.

All politicians find it hard to address with conviction more than one emergency at a time.

When something goes wrong, the natural tendency is to say, "By God, we need to pass a law and do something."

A man's mind will very generally refuse to make itself up until it be driven and compelled by emergency.

You always have to decide whether an international problem is like a skinned knee or an abscessed tooth. If it’s a skinned knew with a scab and you start messing with the scab you can make it worse. But if you let it alone, it will heal itself. If it is an abscessed tooth, and you leave it alone, it will only fester more and become a bigger problem.

Unilateralism in secret is sometimes necessary at the height of a crisis.

Crisis management … is the worst type of policy because you will miss things.

Reform comes in the wake of disaster.

We must solve problems before they occur, rather than scrambling to deal with crises after they erupt..

When your house is on fire—that is not the time to talk

… bad times make for good policies, and good times make for bad policies.

Restricting behavior in a crises is hard to do.

The time has come to stop telling the American people only what they want them to hear, and start talking frankly about the sacrifices we must all make.

It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested.