George Friedman Quotes

It is difficult to decide what you mean when you say any of these words and easy to claim that anyone else's meaning is (or is not) the right one. There is a built-in indeterminacy in our use of language that allows us to shift responsibility for actions in Paris away from a religion to a minor strand in a religion, or to the actions of only those who pulled the trigger. This is the universal problem of secularism, which eschews stereotyping. It leaves unclear who is to be held responsible for what. By devolving all responsibility on the individual, secularism tends to absolve nations and religions from responsibility. ~ George Friedman

We should remember what Bismarck said in 1888: "If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans." Balkan ~ George Friedman

Well what are our geopolitical objectives? First, that North America be peaceful, prosperous, dominated by the United States. Second, that no nation be able to approach the United States militarily ... Those are the goals. It's very simple. We achieve that by making certain that all conflict takes place in the Eastern Hemisphere so we don't have conflict here. ~ George Friedman

Islam invaded Europe twice from the Mediterranean - first in Iberia, the second time in southeastern Europe, as well as nibbling at Sicily and elsewhere. Christianity invaded Islam multiple times, the first time in the Crusades and in the battle to expel the Muslims from Iberia. Then it forced the Turks back from central Europe. The Christians finally crossed the Mediterranean in the 19th century, taking control of large parts of North Africa. Each of these two religions wanted to dominate the other. Each seemed close to its goal. Neither was successful. What remains true is that Islam and Christianity were obsessed with each other from the first encounter. Like Rome and Egypt they traded with each other and made war on each other. ~ George Friedman

And from this story I learned about the geopolitics of taking out one's salami. ~ George Friedman

Europe is in an economic crisis. Germany is the wealthiest country in Europe and it benefits the most from Europe. However, the German public doesn't want to pay for what they see as Greek indolence and corruption. ~ George Friedman

Conventional analysis suffers from a profound failure of imagination. It imagines passing clouds to be permanent and is blind to powerful, long-term shifts taking place in full view of the world. ~ George Friedman

The most efficient way to use military power is to disrupt emerging powers before they can become even marginally threatening. ~ George Friedman

Success looks like you sitting here pretty confident that an armed brigade isn't going to come pouring in here and blow your head off. Which I don't think is your major concern. Therefore, the United States' foreign policy is successful. ~ George Friedman

The reality is that the American people have no desire for an empire. This is not to say that they don't want the benefits, both economic and strategic. It simply means that they don't want to pay the price. Economically, Americans want the growth potential of open markets but not the pains. Politically, they want to have an enormous influence, but not the resentment of the world. Military, they want to be protected from dangers but not to bear the burdens of long-term strategy. ~ George Friedman

Galvanized people can do careless things. It is in the extreme and emotion-laden moments that distance and coolness are most required. I am tempted to howl in rage. It is not my place to do so. My job is to try to dissect the event, place it in context and try to understand what has happened and why. From that, after the rage cools, plans for action can be made. Rage has its place, but actions must be taken with discipline and thought. ~ George Friedman

The idea that the president has the power to craft a new strategy both overstates his power and understates the power of reality crafted by those who came before him. We are all trapped in circumstances into which we were born and choices that were made for us. ~ George Friedman

I had a son in 1976. When I went to Europe, I met an Italian and we became friends. We would talk about what we would tell our families to do if the balloon went up. The conversation
strange and perhaps pathological as it was
bound us together. It was not war, it was not peace, but it was a place in the mind where the preparation for war and the anxiety that it generated created strange forms, such as plans for the movement of children in order to avoid a nuclear holocaust. ~ George Friedman

Great powers can tend to be casual because the situation is not existential. This increases the cost of doing what is necessary. ~ George Friedman

Anger does not make history. Power does. And power may be supplemented by anger, but it derives from more fundamental realities; geography, demographics, technology, and culture. ~ George Friedman

It is good, as I have said, to be neither victim nor victimizer. Unfortunately, it is not possible. What ~ George Friedman

In the end, the problem of Europe is the same problem that haunted its greatest moment, the Enlightenment. It is the Faustian spirit, the desire to possess everything even at the cost of their souls. ~ George Friedman

Italy spills over to everything. Italy is a huge banking system. It has been the major banking system in Eastern Europe. It's worked with Austria's banking system. There's all sorts of interplays there. So it's not the PIIGS one should worry about. Germany hasn't even begun falling yet. And when Germany falls, and it will, that's when the panic begins to set in. ~ George Friedman

If the cost of naming the enemy is diplomatically or politically unacceptable, then the war is not likely to go well. ~ George Friedman

And here's a fact that should get you thinking: when Social Security set the retirement age at sixty-five, the average life expectancy for a male was sixty-one. It makes us realize how little Social Security was designed to pay out. The subsequent surge in life expectancy has changed the math of retirement entirely. ~ George Friedman

Building a naval power takes generations, not so much to develop the necessary technology as to pass along the accumulated experience that creates good admirals. ~ George Friedman

Presidents and other politicians manage the appearance of things, largely by manipulating the air and hope. ~ George Friedman

The European peninsula was occupied by the United States and the Soviet Union, its sovereignty compromised. Over the next decades its empire would disintegrate and its global power disappear. ~ George Friedman

The threats that resurfaced in the past 10 years were not an aberration. Al Qaeda and terrorism or one such threat, but it was actually not the most serious threat that the United States faced. The president can and should speak of foreseeing an era in which these threats don't exist, but you must not believe his own rhetoric. To the contrary, he must gradually ease the country away from the idea that threats to imperial power will ever subside, then l lead it to an understanding that these threats are the price Americans pay for the wealth and power they hold. ~ George Friedman

When I get asked the question, "Do I want to loan you money?" I want to know, how much do you earn? How much do you owe? What is your net worth? When people talk about countries for some reason they only ask how much did you earn and what's your debt? ~ George Friedman

In the course of the century, so many individual decisions are made that no single one of them is ever critical. Each decision is lost in the torrent of judgments that make up a century. ~ George Friedman

The pursuit of universal rights requires more than speeches. It requires power. ~ George Friedman

When you drill down and see the forces that are shaping nations, you can see that the menu from which they choose is limited. ~ George Friedman

Terrorism is an act of violence whose primary purpose is to create fear and, through that, a political result. ~ George Friedman

President Obama dropped the term 'war on terror', and rightly so. Terrorism is not an enemy but a type of warfare that may or may not be adopted by an enemy. Imagine if, after Pearl Harbor, an attack that relied on aircraft carriers, President Roosevelt had declared a global war on naval aviation. By focusing on terrorism instead of al Qaeda or radical Islam, Bush elevated a specific kind of assault to a position that shaped American global strategy, which left the United States strategically off-balance.
Obama may have clarified the nomenclature, but he left in place a significant portion of the imbalance, which is an obsession with the threat of terrorist attacks. As we consider presidential options in the coming decade, it appears imperative that we clear up just how much of a threat terrorism actually presents and what that threat means for U.S. policy. ~ George Friedman

Ideals without power are simply words - they can come alive only when reinforced by the capacity to act. Reality is understanding how to wield power, but by itself it doesn't guide you toward the ends to which your power should be put. Realism devoid of an understanding of the ends of power is frequently another word for thugishness, which is ultimately unrealistic. Similarly, idealism is frequently another word for self-righteousness, a disease that can be corrected only by a profound understanding of power in its complete sense, while realism uncoupled from principle is frequently incompetence masquerading as tough-mindedness. Realism and idealism are not alternatives but necessary complements. Neither can serve as a principle for foreign policy by itself. ~ George Friedman

But wishes don't make policy. Policy is made by reality, and the reality of what has been created, whether intentionally or not, can't be abandoned without breathtakingly severe consequences. ~ George Friedman

Hitler believed nothing, so he was free to believe in anything. ~ George Friedman

I used to write poetry when I was younger," Jess said. She had kept a notebook by her bed, in case some line or image came to her in her dreams, but she had always been a sound sleeper, and no Xanadus or nightingales woke her. She read Coleridge or Keats and felt that they had covered the great subjects so well that she had nothing to add about beauty, or immortality of the soul. "Now I just read."
She spoke cheerfully, without a hint of wistfulness. She was indignant sometimes, but never wistful. Opinionated, but still hopeful in her opinions. Oh, Jess, George thought, no one has hurt you yet. ~ Allegra Goodman

Constraint theory asks: What is the price for doing this? Now one way around constraint theory is declaring your enemy crazy. Crazy and stupid are not concepts used in forecasting. When people say they're really stupid or they're crazy, that's laziness. That means I don't want to think through their position or about what they're really going to do. ~ George Friedman

Presidents may run for office on ideological platforms and promised policies, but their presidency is actually defined by the encounter between fortune and virtue, between the improbable and the unexpected - the thing that neither their ideology nor their proposals prepared them for - and their response. The president's job is to anticipate what will happen, minimize the unpredictability, then respond to the unexpected with cunning and power. ~ George Friedman

The American people must mature. We are an adolescent lot, expecting solutions to insoluble problems and perfection in our leaders. ~ George Friedman

There is no difference in a country between military, economic, and political affairs. It's useful for Business Insider to divide things that way. That's useful for a college program. But a country is a country. How do you understand China's economy without China's army? If you take these all into account you're ready to explain a question like, "How come the US doesn't have a debt problem?" ~ George Friedman

The worst president is closer by nature to the best then either is to anyone who has not gone through what it requires to become president. ~ George Friedman

Due to some incident, real or manufactured, Russians in a Baltic capital begin demonstrating, police use tear gas, and somewhere violence breaks out and Russians are killed. The Russian government demands the right to protect its citizens, the Baltic country rejects the demand. Violence mounts, and the Russians demand that NATO stop the fighting. The Baltic state insists it is an internal matter, claims that Russian intelligence caused the violence, and demands that Russian intelligence stop its intervention. A series of explosions kill a large number of Russians, and Russia occupies the country. For ~ George Friedman

A president must know what it is he does not know, and he should remain calm in pursuit of it, but there is no obligation to be honest about it. ~ George Friedman

The events we have passed through form a coherent pattern and the political actors who have shaped the world are rational
if not necessarily moral or decent
actors. Americans tend to think of its leaders as fools and knaves and of its enemies as psychotic. This seems to comfort us. While America's leaders might be knaves, they are not fools, and while our enemies might have utterly different moral values that are repugnant to us, they are far from insane. ~ George Friedman

Europeans have always thought of U.S. presidents as either naive, as they did with Jimmy Carter, or as cowboys, as they did with Lyndon Johnson, and held them in contempt in either case. ~ George Friedman

There are endless unknowns, and no forecast of a century can be either complete or utterly correct. ~ George Friedman

Idealism is frequently another word for self-righteousness, a disease that can only be corrected by a profound understanding power in its complete sense. ~ George Friedman

A century is about events. A decade is about people. ~ George Friedman

In 732 Charles Martel, in a defining battle, defeated the Muslim armies, forcing them back behind the mountains and confining them to the Iberian Peninsula. Had Martel lost that battle, Europe would have been a very different place. It ~ George Friedman

The kind of president we need has little to do with ideology and more to do with a willingness to wield power to moral ends. ~ George Friedman

... common sense is the one thing that will certainly be wrong. ~ George Friedman

But smuggling people is a referral business, and you don't get good references by robbing and killing your charges. You may get away with it once or twice, but then business dries up. ~ George Friedman

Strategy is something that emerges from reality, while tactics might be chosen. ~ George Friedman

The computer focuses ruthlessly on things that can be represented in numbers. In so doing, it seduces people into thinking that other aspects of knowledge are either unreal or unimportant. The computer treats reason as an instrument for achieving things, not for contemplating things. It narrows dramatically what we know and intended by reason. ~ George Friedman

Well the most likely emerging countries are Japan, Turkey, and Poland. So I would say Eastern Europe, the Middle East and a maritime war by Japan with the United States enjoying its own pleasures. ~ George Friedman

Japan will need to foster deep ~ George Friedman

Because the US has control of the sea. Because the US has built up its wealth. Because the US is the only country in the world really not to have a war fought on its territory since the time of the Civil War ... Therefore we can afford mistakes that would kill other countries. And therefore we can take risks that they can't ... the core answer to why the United States is like this is we didn't fight World War I and World War II and the Cold War here. ~ George Friedman

Here is the irony: Europe dominated the world, but it failed to dominate itself. For five hundred years Europe tore itself apart in civil wars, and as a result there was never a European empire - there was instead a British empire, a Spanish empire, a French empire, a Portuguese empire, and so on. ~ George Friedman

The first thing you have to do is understand what success looks like. And to understand what success looks like you have to understand the intent. If you understand that intent is to make sure the sea lines are secure, then suddenly bombing Kosovo makes sense, because you don't want Serbia to reemerge as a major power. ~ George Friedman

Machiavelli wrote, "The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms. You cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow." This is a better definition of realism than the realists have given us. ~ George Friedman

Long-term solutions are more attractive and cause much less controversy than short-term solutions, which will affect people who are still alive and voting. ~ George Friedman

As the Russians press on the Poles from the east, the Germans won't have an appetite for a third war with Russia. The United States, however, will back Poland, providing it with massive economic and technical support. ~ George Friedman

The last refuge of intolerance is in not tolerating the intolerant ... ~ George Eliot

The British people think that if someone is disabled, then they should get all the care and support that we can offer. ~ George Osborne

It is very hard to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings – much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth. ~ George Eliot

You can't tear up everything just to get the dollar out of it without suffering as result. It is a travesty to burn our woods and thereby burn up the fertilizer nature has provided for us. We must enrich our soil every year instead of merely depleting it. It is fundamental that nature will drive away those who commit sin against it. ~ George Washington Carver

Somebody accused us of hiring him and putting him there. He was a classic. ~ George W. Bush

The revolution in global communications thus forces all nations to reconsider traditional ways of thinking about national sovereignty. ~ George Shultz

Like everybody else, when I don't know what else to do, I seem to go in for catching colds. ~ George Jean Nathan

The March sunne raises but dissolves not. ~ George Herbert

We're taking action against evil people. Because this great nation of many religions understands, our war is not against Islam, or against faith practiced by the Muslim people. Our war is a war against evil. This is clearly a case of good versus evil, and make no mistake about it - good will prevail. ~ George W. Bush

Gabriel nudged her with his shoulder. "Look."
The newborn goat was standing on his own wobbly legs, taking drunken steps. When he toppled sideways, he bleated indignantly.
Gabriel started to reach for him, but Penny held him back. "Wait."
Marigold roused herself and ambled over to her kid, licking him about the head until George lurched and swayed himself to his hooves, and when he nosed at her swollen underside, she allowed him to nurse.
"Oh. That's lovely." Penny snuggled under Gabriel's arm.
"Thank God she finally took to him," he said.
"How could she not? Look how adorable he is. Best little goat in the world. ~ Tessa Dare

God never gives dominion to any creature which has not received his image. His image is love. Other things belong to God; but God is love. No creature that has not love will be allowed to have a permanent empire. The Father of mercy will not put the reigns of government into a hand that has no heart. Dominion is a very solemn thing; it may oppress, crush, destroy. The Father must have a guarantee for its gentleness. What guarantee can there be but his image - the possession of a nature tender as the Divine? ~ George Matheson

Change to me is like an old friend. It's not my enemy anymore. And I know it will keep coming back to visit again and again to teach me something new. ~ Phyllis George

There is no question that a breakup of the euro would be very damaging, very costly, both financially and politically. And the biggest loss would be incurred by Germany. Germans have to bear in mind that, effectively, they have suffered practically no losses so far. Transfers have all been in the form of loans, and it is only when the loans are not repaid that real losses will be incurred. ~ George Soros

A lot of young poets today, from what I've heard and experienced, can't get their heads past George W. Bush, and I've heard so many poems about this democracy and this era of politics that I'm kind of bored by it. ~ Amber Tamblyn

Not everyone reads advertising; they read what they are interested in, and sometimes, that's advertising. ~ George Parker

The only option to avoid war is the departure of the number one warmonger in the world US President George W Bush. His policy has brought disaster to the United States. This crazy man should go and also his subject, disciple and follower UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. ~ Naji Sabri

It is a blessing for which young people ought to be exceedingly thankful, when they have wise and kind and sympathising and intelligent friends (parents especially) who know how to guide them to pure sources of instruction from books, so as on one hand to gratify a natural taste for novelty and entertainment, and on the other, to control that taste within proper bounds; taking conscientious care, at all times, to keep from the young that instruction which 'causeth to err. ~ George E. Sargent

Learn to do common things uncommonly well; we must always keep in mind that anything that helps full the dinner pail is valuable. ~ George Washington Carver

The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else. ~ George Bernard Shaw

The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people–people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. ~ George Orwell

Why should I limit myself to only one woman when I can have as many women as I want? ~ George Gershwin

In ten minutes they will have arrived on campus. George will have to be George; the George they have named and will recognise. So now he consciously applies himself to thinking their thoughts, getting into their mood. With the skill of a veteran, he rapidly puts on the psychological makeup for this role he must play. ~ Christopher Isherwood

From the moment when the machine first made its appearance it was clear to all thinking people that the need for human drudgery, and therefore to a great extent for human inequality, had disappeared. If the machine were used deliberately for that end, hunger, overwork, dirt, illiteracy, and disease could be eliminated within a few generations. And ~ George Orwell

But jest apart
what virtue canst thou trace
In that broad trim that hides thy sober face?
Does that long-skirted drab, that over-nice
And formal clothing, prove a scorn of vice?
Then for thine accent
what in sound can be
So void of grace as dull monotony? ~ George Crabbe

In the case of a meltdown, the regulatory authorities may find themselves obliged to step in to preserve the integrity of the system. It is in that light that the authorities have both a right and an obligation to supervise and regulate derivative instruments. ~ George Soros

It is not betrayal of feeling, but avoidance of duty, that constitutes weakness. ~ George MacDonald

The apostle only commands that each action and ceremony of God's worship be decently and orderly performed, but gives us no leave to excogitate [contrive] or devise new ceremonies, which have not been instituted before. He has spoken in that chapter of assembling in the church, prophesying and preaching, praying and praising there. Now let all these things, and every other action of God's worship, ceremonies and all, be done decently and in order. ~ George Gillespie

This is all your fault," George said angrily to Wood. "'Get the Snitch or die trying,' what a stupid thing to tell him - ~ J.K. Rowling

Though, when a people shall have become incapable of governing themselves and fit for a master, it is of little consequence from what quarter he comes. ~ George Washington

When a man has seen the woman whom he would have chosen if he had intended to marry speedily, his remaining a bachelor will usually depend on her resolution rather than on his. ~ George Eliot

Censure no more shall brand my humble name
The child of passion and the fool of fame ~ George Gordon Byron

More brave than firm,
and more disposed to dare
And die at once
than wrestle with despair ... ~ George Gordon Byron

How could I not love him, after that? That is not to say that I approved of all he did, or much enjoyed the company of the man that he became ... but every little girl needs a big brother to protect her. Tywin was big even when he was little." She gave a sigh. "Who will protect us now?"
Jaime kissed her cheek. "He left a son."
"Aye, he did. That is what I fear the most, in truth."
That was a queer remark. "Why should you fear?"
"Jaime," she said, tugging on his ear, "sweetling, I have known you since you were a babe at Joanna's breast. You smile like Gerion and fight like Tyg, and there's some of Kevan in you, else you would not wear that cloak ... but Tyrion is Tywin's son, not you. I said so once to your father's face, and he would not speak to me for half a year. Men are such thundering great fools. Even the sort who come along once in a thousand years. ~ George R R Martin

So in Scotland witches used to raise the wind by dipping a rag in water and beating it thrice on a stone, saying: "I knok this rag upone this stane To raise the wind in the divellis name, It sall not lye till I please againe. ~ James George Frazer

Dark-heaving; boundless, endless, and sublime,
The image of Eternity,
the throne
Of the Invisible! even from out thy slime
The monsters of the deep are made; each zone
Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. ~ George Gordon Byron

I think my feet are my sexiest body part. People I find really sexy include Angelina Jolie, George Clooney and my mum. ~ Halle Berry

In order to grow we must be open to new ideas ... new ways of doing things ... new ways of thinking. ~ George Raveling

Then Royce's parry came a beat too late. The pale sword bit through the ringmail beneath his arm. The young Lord cried out in pain. Blood welled between the rings. It seemed red as fire where they touched the snow. ~ George R R Martin