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"It is a mistake to interpret too literally and sweepingly the poet's admonition that things are not what they seem. Sometimes they are, and it is often essential to survival to know when they are and when they are not."

— Dean Acheson Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department (1969)

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More quotes by Dean Acheson

How could the USA champion individual freedom in the world generally while denying it to an important minority in its own country.

A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.

Vietnam was worse than immoral — it was a mistake.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull. This is not always easy to achieve.

I will undoubtedly have to seek what is happily known as gainful employment, which I am glad to say does not describe holding public office.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Dean Acheson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.