Daily Inspiration Quote by George Schultz

Schultz is doing what the best Cold War-era operators did almost reflexively: treating “engagement” not as a mood but as infrastructure. On the surface, this is a polite institutional compliment. Underneath, it’s a pitch for a particular model of citizenship, one that doesn’t outsource foreign policy to Washington and then complain when the bill comes due. “Keep people…alive to important developments” isn’t just a folksy turn of phrase; it frames awareness as a kind of national readiness. The implication is blunt: ignorance is a vulnerability, and in a world where crises travel fast, the domestic sphere is never safely “domestic.”

The praise of World Affairs Councils also signals something Schultz spent his career defending: legitimacy. If the public is informed and habituated to thinking internationally, American action abroad looks less like elite improvisation and more like a shared project. That’s especially resonant for a figure shaped by the late 20th century’s recurring trust gaps-Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-Contra-adjacent skepticism, the long hangover of covert power. Civic forums become a soft antidote: not propaganda, but scaffolding for consent.

The final clause, “we stay engaged and we are part of the world,” is rhetorical choreography. It rebukes isolationism without naming it, wrapping a strategic argument in inclusive language (“we”) and national reassurance (“throughout our country”). Schultz isn’t romanticizing globalization; he’s normalizing responsibility. The context is an American superpower wrestling with whether world leadership is a burden or a choice. He’s insisting it’s neither. It’s reality.