43 Michael Ignatieff Quotes for You to Enjoy

Michael Ignatieff

Canadian Politician

Born: May 12, 1947

Good People Political Politics War You

Related authors: Agnes Macphail Andrew Scheer Charlotte Whitton Julie Payette Justin Trudeau Lester B. Pearson Stephen Harper William Lyon Mackenzie King

Genocide is not just a murderous madness; it is, more deeply, a politics that promises a utopia beyond politics - one people, one land, one truth, the end of difference. Since genocide is a form of political utopia, it remains an enduring temptation in any multiethnic and multicultural society in crisis. Michael Ignatieff

Politics Truth People Genocide Madness Political Promises Society Crisis Temptation More Remains Since Beyond End Any Just Difference Form Enduring Land Multicultural Utopia Deeply

Politics is a tough game. But would I change places with a trauma nurse in an emergency ward on a busy Saturday night? No way. There are lots of jobs in the world that are tougher than politics. And politicians and people who've done it need to remember that. Michael Ignatieff

Politics Game Change People World Remember Tough Politicians Busy Nurse Way Jobs Would Emergency Tougher Lots Than Done Places Ward Trauma Saturday Saturday Night Night Need

Free societies, which allow differences to speak and be heard, and live by intermarriage, commerce, and free migration, and democratic societies, which convert enemies into adversaries and reconcile differences without resort to violence, are societies in which the genocidal temptation is unlikely and even inconceivable. Michael Ignatieff

Speak Enemies Free Differences Live Resort Unlikely Reconcile Temptation Free Societies Allow Adversaries Democratic Democratic Societies Without Heard Commerce Which Convert Migration Even Inconceivable Societies Violence

America owed its military renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s to Vietnam. Veterans like Norman Schwartzkopf, Colin Powell, Alfred Grey, Charles Krulak, and Wesley Clark returned home angry and ashamed at their defeat and rebuilt all-volunteer, professional armed forces from the ground up. Michael Ignatieff

Home Angry Veterans Military Defeat Colin Colin Powell Clark Charles Armed Like Armed Forces Renaissance Forces Returned Up Norman America Owed Grey Ashamed Vietnam Vietnam Veterans Ground Professional Rebuilt

Patriotism is the secret resource of a successful society. Michael Ignatieff

Patriotism Society Resource Secret Successful

The detention of Japanese Americans during World War II would qualify as an example of majoritarian tyranny and misuse of executive prerogative, driven by fear and racial bias. Michael Ignatieff

War World Fear Tyranny Example Would Detention Driven Bias Qualify Executive Misuse American Japanese Racial Prerogative World War World War II

What we want is to become masters in our own house. Michael Ignatieff

Become Own Our House Masters Want

Relying exclusively on air power has limits: planes are effective against fixed strategic targets, like petroleum storage, bridges, and command bunkers; but even then, air power rarely succeeds by itself in destroying a regime's ability to command and control its forces. Michael Ignatieff

Power Control Air Destroying Ability Rarely Relying Like Forces Limits Command Effective Itself Targets Fixed Storage Regime Against Succeeds Planes Then Strategic Bridges Even Petroleum

The legitimacy of coercive acts in a democracy arises from the process by which they are justified and by the degree to which we regard decisions as rational. If the justifications proceed properly, through recognized public institutions, and if they make sense to us, they are legitimate. Michael Ignatieff

What makes the United Nations an appropriate source of legitimacy for intervention is that it is the only place where the claims of the strong are put through the test of justification in front of the weak. Michael Ignatieff

Strong United Nations Intervention Appropriate Weak Claims Only Through Put Makes Test Source Front Nations Legitimacy Where Place Justification United

The core of human rights work is naming and shaming those who commit abuses, and pressuring governments to put the screws to abusing states. As a result, human rights conventions are unique among international law instruments in depending for their enforcement mostly on the activism of a global civil society movement. Michael Ignatieff

Work Rights Law Result Human Rights Society States Those Civil Civil Society Put Abuse Global Naming Instruments Mostly Governments Commit Human Depending Movement Conventions Enforcement Who International Unique International Law Activism Among Core

There's intense national feeling in America that could be called patriotism. Michael Ignatieff

Patriotism Feeling National Memorial Day Could America Intense

It's good for people to believe in causes larger than themselves. Michael Ignatieff

Good People Believe Causes Than Themselves Larger

We wanted this war and now we've got it, and I'm not sure that we know what to do with it. Michael Ignatieff

War Know Sure Got Wanted Now

Since Franklin Roosevelt's leadership in setting up the United Nations and the Nuremberg trials, the U.S. has promoted universal legal norms and the institutions to enforce them while seeking, by hook or by crook, to exempt American citizens, especially soldiers, from their actual application. Michael Ignatieff

Leadership Legal Trials Crook United Nations Setting Nuremberg Soldiers Hook Franklin Citizens Promoted Seeking Since Institutions Exempt Up Norms American American Citizens Nations While Them Roosevelt Enforce United Actual Application Universal

After spending the 1980s building up Saddam's Iraq as a counterweight to Iran, U.S. policy abruptly reversed course with his invasion of Kuwait and has since tried to cut him down to size. The policy is called 'containment,' but the question is, containment of what? Michael Ignatieff

All the best reasons for going into politics never really change: the desire for glory and fame and the chance to do something that really matters, that will make life better for a lot of people. Michael Ignatieff

Life Politics Best Change People Better Will Matters Something Never Make Glory Lot Fame Going Really Reasons Desire Chance

I went into politics thinking that, if I made arguments in good faith, I'd get a hearing. It's a reasonable assumption, but it's wrong. In five and a half years in politics up north, no one really bothered to criticize my ideas, such as they were. It was never my message that was the issue. It was always the messenger. Michael Ignatieff

Politics Faith Good Made Argument Half Thinking Assumption Criticize Bothered Never No-One Wrong Ideas Half Years Message Messenger Always Issue Were Years Hearing Up Five North Get Really Reasonable Good Faith

I may have come into politics with an unacknowledged condescension toward the game and the people who played it, but I left with more respect for politicians than when I went in. The worst of them - the careerists and predators - you find in all professions. The best of them were a credit to democracy. Michael Ignatieff

If the history of the western moral imagination is the story of an enduring and unending revolt against human cruelty, there are few more consequential figures than Raphael Lemkin - and few whose achievements have been more ignored by the general public. It was he who coined the word 'genocide.' He was also its victim. Michael Ignatieff

History Genocide Word Cruelty Few Victim Imagination Raphael Moral General More General Public He Also Been Western Revolt Than Unending Human Achievements The History Of Enduring Story Against Public Ignored Who Figures Whose

The ultimate good in a liberal state is liberty. Michael Ignatieff

Good Liberty Liberal State Ultimate

Commerce has changed the ethics of citizenship and the incentives for national service. America now buys private contractors - we used to call them mercenaries - to do the country's fighting. Michael Ignatieff

Service Ethics Country National Fighting Changed Citizenship Mercenary Call Private Contractors Commerce America Them Used Incentives Now Buys

Ultimate authority in a global system remains with sovereigns. Governments will not have it any other way: politicians face instant rejection from their electorate if they allow transnational authorities to dictate terms. Michael Ignatieff

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