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Ida Stover Eisenhower
Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower was the son of Ida Stover Eisenhower and became the 34th president of the United States. Eisenhower was a man of contradictions: for example, he was not personally religious but believed that religion was good for society. Also, he suffered from bad health and a fiery temper, but outwardly displayed confidence and serenity. After graduating from West Point in 1915, he was not given orders to enter combat until 1918, just as World War I was ending. First, he went to work in the Infantry Brigade alongside General Fox Connor, whose soft-spoken manner he admired. In contrast, Dwight then worked alongside General MacArthur, whose theatrical and pompous manner disgusted him. Nevertheless, Dwight bore stoically with MacArthur, believing that if he could work for a man he hated, he could overcome anything in himself. His loyalty to MacArthur also taught him that war was a serious duty, not a glorious exploit. Dwight eventually became a talented yet self-effacing wartime commander. For instance, in the event of the D-Day invasion failing, he’d planned to send a national message that put all the blame on his own shoulders. According to Brooks, one of Dwight’s greatest qualities was that he could masterfully create a second self; he believed it was not who he was from birth, but who he’d built himself to be that was important. Another of his great qualities was moderation. In his 1961 speech when Kennedy succeeded him as president, Eisenhower cautioned against the dangers of unchecked power and extreme changes. He urged the country to make change cautiously and gradually, and not to indiscriminately destroy what was old in favor of the new. Eisenhower held this philosophy of leadership because he believed man was “a problem to himself”—in other words, that people naturally indulge their worst impulses and must exercise self-restraint throughout life.
Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower Quotes in The Road to Character
The The Road to Character quotes below are all either spoken by Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower or refer to Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1: The Shift
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Character is not innate or automatic. You have to build it with effort and artistry.
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Chapter 3: Self-Conquest
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People become solid, stable, and worthy of self-respect because they have defeated or at least struggled with their own demons. If you take away the concept of sin, then you take away the thing the good person struggles against.
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Eisenhower […] held that artifice is man’s nature. We start out with raw material, some good, some bad, and this nature has to be pruned, girdled, formed, repressed, molded, and often restrained, rather than paraded in public. A personality is a product of cultivation. The true self is what you have built from your nature, not just what your nature started out with.
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Like the nation’s founders, [Eisenhower] built his politics on distrust of what people might do if they have unchecked power […] [He] felt in his bones that man is a problem to himself.
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Chapter 6: Dignity
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Social sin requires a hammering down of the door by people who are simultaneously aware they are unworthy to be so daring. This is a philosophy of power, a philosophy of power for people who combine extreme conviction with extreme self-skepticism.
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Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower Quotes in The Road to Character
The The Road to Character quotes below are all either spoken by Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower or refer to Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1: The Shift
Quotes
Character is not innate or automatic. You have to build it with effort and artistry.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3: Self-Conquest
Quotes
People become solid, stable, and worthy of self-respect because they have defeated or at least struggled with their own demons. If you take away the concept of sin, then you take away the thing the good person struggles against.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Eisenhower […] held that artifice is man’s nature. We start out with raw material, some good, some bad, and this nature has to be pruned, girdled, formed, repressed, molded, and often restrained, rather than paraded in public. A personality is a product of cultivation. The true self is what you have built from your nature, not just what your nature started out with.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Like the nation’s founders, [Eisenhower] built his politics on distrust of what people might do if they have unchecked power […] [He] felt in his bones that man is a problem to himself.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: Dignity
Quotes
Social sin requires a hammering down of the door by people who are simultaneously aware they are unworthy to be so daring. This is a philosophy of power, a philosophy of power for people who combine extreme conviction with extreme self-skepticism.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
