Quotes by Jeane Kirkpatrick

“History is a better guide than good intentions.”

“We have war when at least one of the parties to a conflict wants something more than it wants peace.”

“A doctrine of class war seemed to provide a solution to the problem of poverty to people who know nothing about how wealth is created.”

“Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal.”

“Solidarity was the movement that turned the direction of history, I think.”

“Truth, which is important to a scholar, has got to be concrete. And there is nothing more concrete than dealing with babies, burps and bottles, frogs and mud.”

“I was a woman in a man's world. I was a Democrat in a Republican administration. I was an intellectual in a world of bureaucrats. I talked differently. This may have made me a bit like an ink blot.”

“A government is not legitimate merely because it exists.”

“Tyranny and anarchy are alike incompatible with freedom security and the enjoyment of opportunity.”

“Freedom works.”

“Tyranny and anarchy are alike incompatible with freedom security and the enjoyment of opportunity.”

“Americans need to face the truth about themselves, no matter how pleasant it is.”

“Traditional autocrats leave in place existing allocations of wealth, power, status, and other re- sources which in most traditional societies favor an affluent few and maintain masses in poverty. B...”

“Vietnam presumably taught us that the United States could not serve as the world’s policeman; it should also have taught us the dangers of trying to be the world’s midwife to democracy when the bir...”

“No idea holds greater sway in the minds of educated Americans that the belief that it is possible to democratize governments anytime and anywhere under any circumstances .”

“The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American Policy makers.”

“Decades, if not centuries are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits [for democracy]. In Britain, the road [to democratic government] took seven centuries to t...”

“And now, the American people, proud of our country, proud of our freedom, proud of ourselves, will reject the San Francisco Democrats and send Ronald Reagan back to the White House.”

“When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the blame America first crowd didn't blame th...”

“When Marxist dictators shoot their way into power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies. They blame United States policies of 100 years ...”