Quotes Library

April 25, 2025

Government…is simply not the channel through which men’s noblest impulses are to be realized. Its task, on the contrary, is largely to see to it that the ignoble ones are kept under restraint and not permitted to go too far.

George Kennan (1904–2005), American diplomat, historian. Around the Cragged Hill (1993), Jay p.203

Did you come to elective office to do good, or to do well? Have you sacrificed the former in the interest of the latter? Do you think Kennan read The Federalist as a student?

If you want to pursue a noble human impulse, join the NGO of your choice. *non-government organization.


More Quotes

November 3, 2025
One of the uses of history is to free us from a falsely imagined past.
June 17, 2025
As a feast to which all the guests contribute is better than a banquet furnished by a single man
March 14, 2025
[Of political life] The hatreds which sound so real when you read the words, which look so true when you see their scornful attitudes
Page 108 of 123