Thursday, September 27, 2007

Quotes: Presidency. Press. Press Conference. Pressure. Pride. Prig.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Presidency
JFK’s reason for seeking the Presidency: to get things done.
Presidency 108 [Reason for seeking Presidency]: JFK: “...because I want to get things done.” Sorenson, Kennedy

The Presidency presents a chance to exercise judgment on things of importance.
Presidency 411 [The Presidency]: JFK: ...represents a chance to exercise your judgment on matters of importance. Sorenson, Kennedy

The Presidency represents the opportunity to deal with unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.
Presidency 573 [Foreign affairs] …far more occasions for reacting to unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Sorenson, Kennedy

The test of a successful Presidency was achievement. [That was JFK’s test and by that test, he was a failure.]
Presidents 620 It seemed evident that his [Kennedy’s] measure of presidential success was concrete achievement; thus people who educated the nation without necessarily accomplishing their particular purposes rated, in his judgment, below those, like Polk and Truman, who accomplished their purposes without necessarily bringing the nation along with them. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

Press
The American Press represents the traditional open society as opposed to the Vietnam planners who operated as if America was a closed society.
Press 584 …the private men making secret decisions on Vietnam as though they were part of a closed society, and the traditional open American society, represented by the American press. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.

Press Conference
JFK compared the twice-monthly press conference to a final exam twice a month.
Press conferences 363 [Regular press conferences]: JFK: “It’s like preparing for a final exam twice a month.” Sorenson, Kennedy

Pressure
JFK compared the pressure accompanying the Presidency to living in a fish bowl.
Pressure 356 JFK: “...living in the bull’s eye....” Sorenson, Kennedy

Pride
Arrogance and pride have a day of reckoning.
Pride 158 Aeschylus: All arrogance will reap a harvest rich in tears./God calls men to a heavy reckoning/For overweening pride. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.

The braggart is hated by the gods.
Pride 169 Leader: The braggart’s pompous tongue/ Is hated most by Zeus. Sophocles. Antigone.

It’s hard to admit I was wrong, but harder still to invite catastrophe because of stubborn pride.
Pride 201 Creon: It’s hard to eat my words, and harder still/ To risk catastrophe through stubborn pride. Sophocles. Antigone.

Your pride will be leveled.
Pride 39 Tiresias: What plethora of sorrows—ah! you do not dream—will pull you down and level off your pride…. Sophocles. Oedipus the King.

Pride feeds on vanity and tempts fate’s destruction.
Pride 57 Chorus: Pride engenders power, pride:/ Banqueting on vanities/ Mistaken and mistimed;/ Scaling pinnacles to dash/ Her foot against Fate’s stone. Sophocles. Oedipus the King.

Pride makes a man vulnerable, like Humpty Dumpty.
Pride 200 …that a man is vulnerable only in his pride, but delicate as Humpty-Dumpty once that is meddled with. Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night.

Pride is our opinion of ourselves; vanity what we think others think of us.
Pride vs. vanity 20 Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.

Prig
A prig is always offering you his opinions.
Prig 100 …a prig is a fellow who is always making you a present of his opinions. George Eliot, Middlemarch.

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