Dwight David Eisenhower (1890–1969,) nicknamed Ike, was an American military general and political leader. He served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II 1943–45 and as the 34th president of the U.S. 1953–61. His standing rests just as much on his achievements as a military leader as on his successes as president.
Born in Denison, Texas, Eisenhower attended the United States Military Academy (West Point) and had a thriving career in the U.S. Army. His strategic decisions and political acumen played a pivotal role in the conclusion in World War II. He directed the Allied invasion of German-occupied France on “D-Day,” June 6, 1944. The successful landings in Normandy were the start of the final campaign of World War II.
After the war, Eisenhower became the first Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and led the military arm of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO.) His immense popularity as the most successful military general won him a landslide victory as president in 1952, and got him reelected in 1956; he defeated Democratic-party candidate Adlai Stevenson in both those presidential elections.
As president, Eisenhower presided over eight years of peace and prosperity. He adopted a hard line toward communism in both his domestic and foreign policy, brokered the peace agreement to end the Korean War, and established the Interstate Highway System.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Dwight D. Eisenhower
Through unity of action we can be a veritable colossus in support of peace. No one can defeat us unless we first defeat ourselves. Every one of us must be guided by this truth.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Pessimism, Failure, Cynicism, Action
The emergence of this new world poses a vital issue: will outer space be preserved for peaceful use and developed for the benefit of all mankind? Or will it become another focus for the arms raceand thus an area of dangerous and sterile competition? The choice is urgent. And it is ours to make. The nations of the world have recently united in declaring the continent of Antarctica off limits to military preparations. We could extend this principle to an even more important sphere. National vested interests have not yet been developed in space or in celestial bodies. Barriers to agreement are now lower than they will ever be again.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
So that here we have, really, the compound, the overall philosophy of Lincoln: in all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with the peoples money or their economy, or their form of government, be conservativeand don’t be afraid to use the word. And so today, Republicans come forward with programs in which there are such words as balanced budgets, and cutting expenditures, and all the kind of thing that means this economy must be conservative, it must be solvent. But they also come forward and say we are concerned with every Americans health, with a decent house for him, we are concerned that he will have a chance for health, and his children for education. We are going to see that he has power available to him. We are going to see that everything takes place that will enrich his life and let him as an individual, hard-working American citizen, have full opportunity to do for his children and his family what any decent American should want to do.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Americans, indeed all free men, remember that in the final choice a soldier’s pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner’s chains.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Americans
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Weakness, Freedom
The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Lawyers, Law
There are a number of things wrong with Washington. One of them is that everyone is too far from home.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: City Life, Cities
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Making decisions is of the essence in leadership.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Things are more like they are now than they have ever been before.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Truth
Every step we take towards making the State our Caretaker of our lives, by that much we move toward making the State our Master
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Government
When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing…. I told him I wanted to be a real Major League Baseball Player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he’d like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Baseball
If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking … is freedom.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Security, Perspective, Safety
Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Freedom, Independence
The qualities of a great man are vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Quality, Greatness & Great Things
Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels—men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: America
For any American who had the great and priceless privilege of being raised in a small town there always remains with him nostalgic memories… And the older he grows the more he senses what he owed to the simple honesty and neighborliness, the integrity that he saw all around him in those days.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
But I believe this: by and large, the United States ought to be able to choose for its President anybody that it wants, regardless of the number of terms he has served. That is what I believe. Now, some people have said You let him get enough power and this will lead toward a one-party government. That, I don’t believe. I have got the utmost faith in the long-term common sense of the American people. Therefore, I don’t think there should be any inhibitions other than those that were in the 35-year age limit and so on. I think that was enough, myself.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Change, Ideas, World
Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Motivation, Motivational
An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Words, Intellectuals, Intelligence
Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first happen in the heart of America. More than escape from death, it is a way of life. More than a haven for the weary, it is a hope for the brave.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: America
An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame—Southern Methodist University game and doesn’t care who wins.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Atheism
There is nothing wrong with America that the faith, love of freedom, intelligence and energy of her citizens cannot cure.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: America, Enthusiasm, Accomplishment, Passion, Greatness & Great Things
Politics is a profession; a serious, complicated and, in its true sense, a noble one.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Peace
We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Achievement
A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Humor
There is, in world affairs, a steady course to be followed between an assertion of strength that is truculent and a confession of helplessness that is cowardly.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Diplomacy
With a full century of contrary proof in our possession and despite our demonstrated capacity for cooperative teamwork, some among us seem to accept the shibboleth of an unbridgeable gap between those who hire and those who are employed. We miserably fail to challenge the lie that what is good for management is necessarily bad for labor; that for one side to profit, the other must be depressed. Such distorted doctrine is false and foreign to the American scene where common ideals and purpose permit us a common approach toward the common good.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: War
I despise all adjectives that try to describe people as liberal or conservative, rightist or leftist, as long as they stay in the useful part of the road.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Politics
If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. Theyll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Equality
Dollars and guns are no substitutes for brains and will power
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Dissent
The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation more than its wealth
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Spirituality, Spirit
I have only one yardstick by which I test every major problem—and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: America
Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Help, Weakness, Cooperation, One liners
Plans are nothing; planning is everything.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Planning
Our American heritage is threatened as much by our own indifference as it is by the most unscrupulous office or by the most powerful foreign threat. The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Topics: Voting
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