Great Throughts Treasury

"It is a deep-seated belief on the part of almost all Americans that their success will be better assured as they help to build the success of others."

"If we are to have a stabilized market demand, selling pressure should be maintained . . . perhaps increased . . .at the first sign of a decline in business. I know of no single way business managers can do more to stabilize market demand than through greater stabilization of sales and advertising expenditures."

"A gentleman is one who is too brave to lie, too generous to cheat, and who takes his share of the world and lets other people have theirs."

"Incentives are spurs that goad a man to do what he doesn’t particularly like, to get something he does particularly want. They are rewards he voluntarily strives for."

"Salesmanship consists of transferring a conviction by a seller to a buyer."

"With intelligence and humility and dedication as our ammunition, we can wage the peace throughout the world with a strength beyond armies, destroying nothing except hate and greed and distrust."

"Among the reasons for this was the fact that the U.S.A. is one mass market. It is only when you have a mass market that large-scale manufacturing which involves very substantial expenditures can be justified."

"As far as we were concerned, we were operators, we were administrators. I don't ever recall going to Dean Acheson and asking for any counsel or advice on administration, but I had the greatest respect for him, as I have today."

"But I felt that most of us in the world today gave priority to our personal interests."

"However, from the very beginning of the program, we made it perfectly clear that we would be out of Europe in four years; that whatever was to be accomplished had to be accomplished in that period of time."

"I would like to say that no man ever was given finer cooperation than that given me by President Truman."

"At the time it seriously troubled me, but in drafting me as Marshall Plan Administrator, President Truman did as great a favor for me as one man can do for another. It opened my eyes to many things of which I was totally unaware and it was the beginning of my real education."

"If he had listened to some of his advisors and had tried to make the Marshall Plan a political dumping ground for unqualified politicians, it couldn't have been a success."

"If there was to be a new Europe, there not only had to be a common market, but also great mobility in labor."

"In its best prewar year, Europe with almost 300 million people had a gross national product of 150 billion dollars. In that same year, the United States with 150 million people had a gross national product of 300 billion dollars."

"The Europeans had made two promises to the United States if Marshall Plan help was forthcoming. The first promise was maximum self-help on the part of every country; and second, maximum mutual aid."

"The full potential of labor can be utilized only if there is mobility in labor."

"There are times we are givers, but others time we have to let others give to us."

"We should wage war not to win war, but to win peace."

"The magic was in the Marshall Plan itself. It provided an opportunity for appealing and constructive work. In a sense, the mission chiefs were given the opportunity to help act as architects for the new Europe that was envisioned."

"Yes, Jean Monnet was the father of the concept of a United States of Europe and his efforts more than those of any other single man helped change the thinking of European leaders."